Shards of tales
by basa93
Summary: These are the little pieces of my future fanfic. I will add some and if I focus on one and transform if from pieces to one big story then take some off.
1. Story Ideas

Ok, so as I have wrote in the AN in my fic. I will start some of my story ideas. As of now I won't make them into a full blown out fic. But I will write some chapter for them. Shards of the story really.

**Star Wars Legends: The Beginning takes first place as of now!**

That being said here they are:

Story ideas: Titles can change. Lemon content could change. Pairings in most undecided as of yet.

**Bleach: The rise of the Protector**

Ichigo/Yoruichi, Ichigo/Tia or Ichigo/harem (lemons)

What would happen if Ichigo has a helper at the start of his adventures? What if this helper would teach him, really train him against his enemies and how to survive in a war which doesn't have to do much with him? At least at the first glance.

**Game of Thrones: Game of lifes**

Jon/Danerys, Jon/Nymeria, Jon/Arianne maybe Jon/harem (light lemons most likely)

What would happen if Jon Snow somehow accure a magic book which transforms his life into a game. Would he make the same choices he did in canon? Could he save the Starks? Could he make a difference?

**Warhammer: Alternate Heresy Warhammer/Harry Potter crossover**

No pairing for this one as of yet.

What would happen if Harry Potter was the Primarch of the Second Legion? But at the end of the Great Crusade he was lost with his legion in a Warp Storm? After dieing as Harry Potter, he returns to the galaxy which only knows war. And why would the Eldar call him the Avatar of Ynnead?

Decided to combine the two. If you want any legion being on either side of the conflict please PM me or review the chapter.

**Naruto: Bringer of peace**

Naruto/harem (heavy lemons)

Naruto was always curious. Add to the fact that he wanted to be the hokage for a long time, trouble was clearly on the horizon. When he hears some shinobi talking about the Forest of Death, where only the most powerful go, he decided to make the Hokage proud. By some miracle he stumbled into a cave unharmed. There he find the legacy of the Sage of Six Paths, his brother, his sons and a certain Senju Clan Head. With his ancestor to guide him he is ready to take on the Elemental Nations!

I will wait what ChaosEmperorRex will do with the Other Legacy. If he doesn't go where I want to take this fic, than I will write it.

**Fairy Tail/Harry Potter crossover: Master of Death: Death's servant**

Harry/Erza/maybe Mira or/and Ultear (heavy lemons)

Harry Potter dies. It isn't that surprising considering that he lived well past the normal lifespan of a wizard, but to defeat Voldemort he made a deal with Death all those years ago. It will grant him passage into it's realm. As soon as he finish his mission which it gave him. There is a world where two invidual dwell, one in the form of dragon and one in the form of human, who used Death's power without permission. If he deals with them he can relax in the afterlife. But after finding love in this world will he even want to part with them?

**Fairy Tail: The dragon prince **

Natsu/harem (heavy lemons)

Natsu left Fairy Tail to go and train in remote parts of the continent. Returning he will defend them, burning all who wish harm on them. He will be the dragon who protect the fairies.

**Dragon Age Inquisition/Harry Potter crossover:**

Harry/? No pairing as of now

After a magical misshap in the Room of Requiment Harry finds himself at the Rift. Not knowing where he is or what happened he is captured by Cassandra and his men.

**Harry Potter: Death's debt**

Harry/Lily/harem, Good!Dumbledore

Death rewards Harry for destroying the soul shards of one Tom Marlovo Riddle. After destroying the soul piece in his head at the Ministry Death decide to send Lily back to her son. With a few minor changes.

Thats for now, but I have other ideas so maybe I will write those down as well.

**Wicther/Harry Potter crossover**

Harry/Triss or Harry/Ciri or Harry/Triss/Ciri (with sleeping around with others) (lemons)

When one of the greatest sorceress of the continent and the greatest knight (and one of the prince) of Nilfgaard have a son it guraanted to change the course of history.

Before any accuse of me of this: No this isn't like The Witcher: The Emerald Dragon by Spyro 432 (see my favourites). Harry is born in the witcher world.

**Harry Potter/Game of Thrones: Harry of the Vale**

pairing: Harry/Dany(?)

Jon Arryn could sire a heir at the same time as Ned. What will change with a capable Lord Arryn leading the Vale?

**Harry Potter/Game of Thrones: Azor Ahai**

pairing: Harry/Arianne/Dany(?)


	2. Bleach -0- Someone from the past

AN: Ok, this is a teaser for my Bleach fanfic. Nothing much in this chapter, but I would like to hear you ideas about it.

AN2: You all know how I work: Please send reviews and PMs if you have question, ideas, seen grammar problem etc.

**0\. chaper**

_Someone from the past_

She glanced at them, the two teenager, one garbed in shinigami uniform while the other remained in everyday outfit. The boy, at fiveteen, had a tall, muscular but lean form topped with orange colored hair and brown eyes. In his head was a zanpaktou, the swords of shinigami, the size of himself. She couldn't help but snicker at how clumsly he was with it. It was plainly appearent that he had no knowledge how to fight with a sword. She doupted he would fare better if it was simply a katana. The only reason he was able to handle the hollows was his superior reflex and suprising speed, both quite impressive for a normal human. Just as his spiritual energy level. It wasn't concentrated like hers or other more spiritually aware inviduals, but still enormous for a mere human. Still while his control sucked – big way she may add, the pressure of his spirit energy was nearly non-existen. It was there but it was weak. It seemed he was quantity over quality kind of guy.

The other one, a petite girl, was shouting at him orders, and advices. Obviously the girl thought that the boy improvement was her archivement, but the observer disagreed. He learned from experience. He still used many unnecessery movements, wasting energy left and right, which didn't affect him in any way, but his attacks were less hesitant.

"Come on, Ichigo!" the girl shouted "We don't have time to waste. A hollow appeared at the outskirt of the town!"

"Don't need to be soo loud, midget. I can hear you perfectly." the boy growled back.

She shook her head at the duo. It wouldn't do to have the kid killed because his partner and other inviduals who should do so, but don't train him. He was thrusted into a world which while familiar to on the surfacewas still very alien to him. She couldn't help it when she cursed loudly. The girl had a good control on her spiritual energy from what she sensed at that night a week ago. Why didn't she teach anything to the boy? While it was clear that the boy won't become a spellweaver anytime soon, but teaching him to not atract that many hollow would do good.

They were quite the pair. At first they seemed quite incompatible, a disaster waiting at every corner. But for now they worked perfectly with eachother. Not that many would see it as such.

She could careless about the girl, Kuchiki Rukia. The Kuchiki clan was nothing but the group of the snobbiest and most arrogant shinigamis in the entire Soul Socitey in her opinion. There were some, who were decent enough, but none that she would help without serious reason. Very serious considering what they did in the past against her family. She didn't hold it against the girl. She wasn't in the Seireitei at the time, hell even the current clan head was nothing more than an arrogant, but surprisingly temperamental teenager.

Kurosaki Ichigo. Now that was someone she couldn't just leave like that to his own even if others seemed content to do so. The true dilemma was how to help him? She didn't want to explain herself to the Kuchiki girl as that would raise many question she didn't want to even hear much less answer. So she had to find a way to not let the girl know her interfere with Ichigo, while she train him a little. For a week she inquired all about the boy. He was quite good at school, intelligent, which would surprise most if the first they hear about him being Karakura most feared teenager. Well, most feared by the gangs. But she observed him with his family. While he and his father didn't had the typical father-son bond, they seemed to care for eachother. In a very strange way, but his father seemed firm believer the "what doesn't kill, will make you stornger" method. Both his sisters seemed to think that he was the greatest man ever, thought the older, Karin probably never will say this aloud.

He was proficient hand-to-hand combatant thanks to his karate lessons in the past and constant fight with gangs. His skill with the sword will grow with futher experience, even if it would be wise to teach him at least the basic of zanjutsu. That left two large discipline out of four unattended, hoho and kido, fast movements and spells. Thankfully her expertise were this two fields. Out the two he will have more aptitude towards hoho, that was clear. But in all honestly kido or at least control techniques would be as, if not more important to learn.

She observed them for a few days, waiting the moment she could speak with Ichigo without alerting the girl. The time had come when she left for the Urahara shop for some things or others, most likely information or getting a mod-soul from the shopkeeper. For a moment she thought about following the girl, Urahara was funy when it was not on your expense, but decided otherwise. She had no more desire to meet the man than the Kuchiki girl.

"Kurosaki-san?" she adressed the young man.

"Yeah?" he was rude alright. "Can I help you with something?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, not really. But I can help you with your problems." she said simply.

"Do we know eachother? I mean I am pretty bad with remembering people, but..." he trailed of. Causing her smile to grow a little bit. She known that she was considered beautiful by most. She was fairly tall, with dark brown nearly black hair and turguoise eyes. Her body was slim, a bit muscular but had just the right curves on herself.

"No, not really." she answered amused at his scowl deepening.

"Ok, what do you want? I'm really not in the mood for riddles." he said.

"Of course. Shall we go somewhere more... private?" she asked. He didn't answer just gave a nod. The walk to her house was made in silence. Which turned out to be one of the deserted buddhist temple at the top of a nearby mountain. It wasn't that much of a distance, but still outside Karakura town.

Getting seated at her dinning room Ichigo looked at it again. For a traditional temple it had most of the modern devices he was accumosted.

"Can you little girlfriend reach you if a hollow appear?" she asked as she served tea for them.

"She is not my grilfriend!" he shouted so red faced, that a tomato would envy "And... you know about the hollows?" he asked bewilded by it.

"Of course. What did you think I would offer my assistance with?" she asked plainly.

"Ok. I think I do alright. So there isn't anything to you to assist with." he said calmly.

"Truly? Shall we test it?" seeing that the teen – was she that troublesome at that age?, didn't back down she shighed "Ok at the back there is a training yard. Wait for me there in your spirit form." She went to her retriving her zanpaktou.

What followed could only be describted as humilating. Ichigo was cocky, bordenline arrogant. She didn't step out of her gigai. Even in a physical body, while it greatly reduced her abilities, she should be able to defeat him. At first Ichigo just charged her with sword raised high. She easily stepped to the side and gave him a cut on his left arm. At his wide eyed look she could help but grin.

"What you thought that my sword wouldn't be able to cut you? Assuming something like that on a battlefield will get you killed, Ichigo." she lectured calmly.

Next, he charged but held the sword at his hip. She also raised her katana. But when it came to the clash she simply jumped over his swing and kicked him at the head.

"Just because I raise my sword it doesn't mean I intend to use that to attack you." she said.

Ichigo seeing that straight approch didn't work tried a different solution. He darted to the side, but his speed, while most impressive for a human was nothing to her. With a quick shunpo she had him on his knees again with a bakudo shackles on his wrists.

"Never think that you superior to your opponent unless you are absolutely sure about it." she said earning a scowl from the teen.

Getting inside Ichigo sat down on a chair with a huff.

"Ok, so I could do better. Why would you be interested in how I fair? As you said we never meet before so..." but he was stopped as she raised her palm.

"I never said we didn't meet. You were just a baby, so you wouldn't remember but I have seen you. You were quite adorable." she said amused at his shocked look "Which is why I'm doing this. I was on friendly terms with your mother. So it's only natural that I help you."

"What?! Don't joke around! You don't look a day older than twenty!" he said with narrowed eyes.

"What a surprise! I never thought you would be the ladies man, but you sure know what to say a girl." she teased back. Seeing his darkening look she amended her statement "Ok, I'm older than what most would assume. And I had know your mother."

"She never, not once mentioned you." he fired back irritated.

"Makashi died when you were... what? Nine years old? Why would she tell stories about me to you?" she asked back "I wasn't even in Japan at that time. I only got back a month or so ago."

"I see." he said with a faraway look.

"Here take this." with that she gave him a picture. Ichigo couldn't believe what he saw. It was their living room without doupt. There was four people on the picture, all on the couch. His parents, his father with a small smile gazing down at Kurosaki Masaki, his mother with a gentle smile on her lips, he himself, clearly only about two year old in the arms of the mysterious woman, who was playing with him as he tried to grab her fingers.

"I don't know what to say." he admited weakly.

"Why don't we start at the beginning?" she suggested "My aplogies I didn't even introduced myself. My name is... Shiba Kairi. Nice to meet you, Ichigo-kun."

"Nice to meet you, Shiba-san." he bowed back "I'm sorry for the trouble..."

"Think nothing of it." she waved it off "But I take it that you will think about my offer again... I don't want an answer now, Ichigo-kun." she clairifield seeing the teen was ready to answer "Here. This is my phone number. Give me a call if you decided. And I would like to ask something in exchange. Please don't mention me to your shinigami friend. She would have to report me to her superior and they would be annoying to say the least."

"Are you a fuggitive?" he asked a bit confused as of why she wouldn't want them to know about that.

"You could say that." she replied easily "After some events, whichs aren't that important for now, I resingned from my post as a shinigami officer."

"I see. Thank you, Shiba-san. You gave me much to think about." Ichigo said as he raised himself from the chair. At the door he bowed in farewell, much to Kairi amusement.

"You don't need to do this, Ichigo-kun. And please call me Kairi-san or even Kairi-chan." she said. A grin appeared on her lips seeing the little blush on his face.

"Awww, you are as adorable as you were as a baby!" she chipped. Ichigo's scowl made it's comeback hearing that, which of course only served to amuse her even more.

Ichigo didn't pay much attention to Rukia's question about his whereabouts. Fortunately he was still more or less on the time he usually arrived home if he stayed out so Karin and Yuzu remained obvious about his unusual day. His father... he didn't even known if his father would notice or if he would react like normal people do. He invited Rukia in their house and he accepted it without batting an eyelid.

Laying on his bed his thought were solely on Kairi's offer. He did know that she was right. He needed to improve his abilities if he wants to survive fighting hollows. If it was only one he usually didn't had to much trouble, but when two or three appeared at one location sometimes he did come close to be clawed in half on a few occasion already.

Then at her request. Should he tell about her to his family? Yuzu and Karin would love to meet her and from what he had seen, which wasn't much, Kairi-san would be good female role model for them. And his father may mellow out a bit after meeting with an old friend.

He decided after several minutes of internal debate. He would accept Kairi-san offer and ask her opinion on telling his family about her. It was her life after all. And he couldn't exactly be mad at her if she didn't want to meet goat-face. He nearly laughed out at that.

Next morning he phoned her.

"Kairi-san? Sorry for bothering you this early..."

"..."

"Thank you. Yes, I would like to take you up of your offer."

"..."

"Yes, then I will be there...say, about at four o'clock?"


	3. Game of Thrones: Game of Life

1\. chapter:

_Game of life_

Jon Snow moodily comped into the wood near Winterfell, his pup direwolf, Ghost dozens of feet ahead of him. He vowed again and again but he couldn't help but let Lady Stark's words effect him. Lady Catelyn only spoke to him when she didn't have any other choice, but when she did it was always the same burning word she named him: bastard.

He didn't understand why she had to always say it. Maybe so that he never forget his place? How could he not? He couldn't remember a day when he hadn't heard it. Mostly from Theon or Lady Catelyn, but the servants didn't made a big issue about saying it either.

What really perxeled him was how the Lady of Winterfell went out the way to suptly or not so suptly insult him, but didn't do anything towards Lord Stark. Gods, he could see that the lady loved the man he could call father outside her earshot. Blaming the son for the sin of the father? That wasn't fair in his opinion. But life wasn't fair. And his life was way better than the other bastards. He could learn how to wield a sword, how to ride, read, write, manners, lore of the realms. While others of the same birth would be happy if they could be a stable boy. Maybe he was ungrateful, but it still hurt that Lady Catelyn would hate him so much for something out of his control.

It was Ghost's yipp that brought him out of his mussings. Looking at the pup his eyes widened seeing that the wolf brought a black leather covered book to him. He frantically loked around, searching for the owner of the book.

"Ghost, please don't go around stealing others things. Where did you found this?" he asked, but the pup only sat there and cocked his head to the side. Sighing, Jon took the book in his hand. What he didn't except was that silver smoke and light that came from the book. After a moment whatever it was stopped. Jon wanted to go back to Winterfell at once. He didn't know what it was, but knew that he didn't want any part in it. Looking up from the object in his hands he was taken back. In front of him there was what appeared the first page of the book.

_"Greetings stranger! This book will change your life, I can tell that much. Your life will become something else I'm sure!"_

Jon started getting worried. Stranger? As in one of the Seven? Was it something religious, He had know only a handful people in Winterfell who followed the Seven, and only slightly more in the North at he read it again. He nearly laughed out in relief. So it wasn't something that belonged to Lady Stark or Sansa! Thank the Gods, new and old! He wanted to turn a page, but the book seemed to read his mind.

_"You are a male. Yes or no_?" was on the next page, nothing else.

"Yes of course!" he said with a bit more force than what should be wise. The book turned page immediately and Jon could feel his breath being stolen away looking at the lines here.

_"Your heritage: _

_mother: Lady Lyana Stark _

_father: Prince Rhaegar Targaryen_

_status:_ ?

_Heritage traits: Norhtener by House Stark and Dragonblood by House Targaryen."_

Jon never knew his mother. Lord Stark never answered his questions nor others'. He now understood why. This... this would change everything. He didn't know much about the power-play between the Great Houses, but something like that couldn't be simply brushed off. Add that King Robert vowed to slay all "dragonspawn"... What would the man do when he hears that the woman, the love of his life had a son with his bitterest enemy?

His father... Rhaegar Targaryen, the Dragon Prince. Lord Stark never said much about the man only that he snatched Lyanna away. In all honestly Jon couldn't remember if he said anything about it. He told them about Arthur Dayne, the Sword of Morning, but of Rhaegar he didn't or he just couldn't remember.

_"What were these heritage traits? And what do mine?" _he asked himself. Surprisingly the book provided answer to this.

_"Heritage traits or Bloodgifts, are unique perk trees only possesed by the member of the same heritage. They have several levels each making the trait stronger in you. They allow you to have other perks of the same heritage. Northener means that as you are of the North you have Cold Resistance, meaning you can encure the cold, ice and wind. You gain five points in spirit and perception attributes, while losing five in fate and wisdom. Dragonblood gave you Fire Resistance, which is self explanatory. You gain ten points in spirit, but lose ten in intelligence."_

It seemed that the book answered the questions "even if he only think about them.

_"What other perks can I get from my heritage?" _he tried it out.

_"From Northener there is the Warg perk, which allows you to enter the minds of an animals and control them. There are other heritage perks which can't be accesed as of now. Dragonblood allow you the Dragonborn perk, which allow you to control the dragons and other magical creatures to a lesser extend. There are other heritage perks which can't be accesed as of now. To see more please go to the perk lists."_

Well, that explained a lot. Jon turned again. It was the longest list so far.

_"These are your attributes, scored out of a hundred. You can raise them as you level up, earn them in archivements or by reading an attribute book. Each level up rewards you with five attribute point to spend."_

Well, fuck him. Jon hoped that he could level up soon and fast because his Intelligence took quite the beating with the Targaryen heritage. The others looked more or less okay. Or not. His Wisdom was even lower, the same could be said about his Fate. And his Charisma was even lower by two points making it score at twelve points.

Turning a page he came across the skill list.

_"These are your skills. They are scored out of two hundred. You can raise them by leveling up, earning them in archivement or by reading a skill book. Each level up will grant you ten skil points to spend. The book will only show those you have point in. For example Herbalism isn't on the list as you know nothing on it same as blacksmith."_

That was... Jon couldn't word it approtorety how he felt. He always thought that he only had two path to choose. The first was to take the Black and become a member of the Night Watch. The other was to remain here, at Winterfell and be a... what? Swornsword to the Stark family, he suppose he could call that. But if what the book "said" was true he could become anything he wanted! Even a maester or trader if he choose that. Not that he had any wish to become either but it was nice to have a choice. That of course asked for the question: what he wanted to become? He honestly didn't know, not anymore. But he knew one thing: he wanted to become someone who made a difference. He wanted others to remember him.

What made his mood turn to sour was his skill's score. He trained, fucking trained for nearly a decade now, and he was this weak?! After quelling his irritation on the matter and thinking on it for a little he noded. They weren't the best but he couldn't except much more. He knew that he was truly only a child in swordmanship compared to the likes of Ser Barristan Selmy or Ser Jaime Lannister. But he wanted to raise them just as his attributes.

Turning page he came across the perk list.

_"These are your perks. All perks has five different levels. For some perks you earn them by an archivement or it has a skill or attribute score requirement before you can have it. Some have heritage requirement. You won't see these until you have somehow accquired the requiment. You gain one perk points per level up or can gain by archivement or perk book. The latest two are a rarety. Some perks offer a boot in one and disadvantage in other fields, while others are purely a boot for you."_

Next came the archivements and traits, which page, of course, was completely empty.

_"Archivements are for completing difficult quests or achiving feat of renown and awe. They often give you rewards for getting them. Traits on the other hand earned by your choices which you make at a critical point."_

_"So one was for completing the quest and the other for how he do it?"_ He thought. His life was turned into one of those child game that Arya, Bran and Rickon play, the same which he enjoyed as a kid when he played with Robb and Theon. The game was simple: the players were heros and they go an adventure where they get rewards, coins and whatnot on completing quests. The only problem was that there wasn't a female character. Arya was most appeled by that, stating that if Queen Nymeria could rule a whole kingdom she should be in the game or at least a female warrior should. After a bit of debate Lord Stark had some wood worker make a female statue, much to Lady Catelyn chargin. His thoughts came to a crushing halt when a new label made itself known.

_"You have two thousand experience points. Congratulations, you have reached a new level!"_

Again thank the Gods, new and old! Seeing that he went back to his attributes he was startled that he was on his fifth level! Meaning that for now a thousand experience point should be considered a lot. And meaning that he could compensate for his weakness. He had twenty five point to spend here. He spent eight to have his Charisma at twenty. Spent six to both Fate and Wisdom to have them twenty as well. The remaining five was spent on Intelligence making it scoring twenty-five. It rounded his attributes out quite right.

Next came the skills where he had fifty points to spend. He spent thirteen into one-handed making it's score fifty-five. He spent one point Survival and Tracking. Four went to Block, five to both Lieing and Riding. Ten points were spent on the Animal trainer. Six went to Archery. The remaining five was spent on Light-armor and Shield.

Last came the perks. There were lot of them just as skills. He decided to have the Warg perk (requirement: Northener heritage, animal companion or 30 points in Animal Trainer). It made Ghost easier to control and the next levels will add perception bonus as well. Next he choosed the Eagle Eye (requirement: 25 points in perception). He could see the information of others, which he found damn useful even if it had it's limitations. How much he could see was decided by how much influence/relation he had with the person, the persons skill in stealth or lieing, his or her level and some other factor as well. The other was the Dual Arm (requirement: 25 points in dexterity) which allowed him to wield a weapon in his left arm with minimal difference. The next was a surprise: it was the Maester of Training (requirement: 25 points in Intelligence) which augmented the attribute points and skill points earned by level up by five to each. Glancing at the list – which was very long by the way even with most perks dimmed, meaning he could not have them for some reason, he found some fighting styles. After looking at them for several minutes, he found one which allegedly was founded in the North and thus Ser Rodrik Cassel, the Stark's master-of-arms should be able to help him with it. It didn't take much thinking to settle for it.

Surprisingly he didn't waste much time with all of this. It seemed like he spent hours on the book but if that was the thruth it would be already night, while it was only nightfall. He was out of Winterfell for maybe a hour and a half. Thankfully Robb asked him to where he intended to go whe he spotted Jon going outside the castle. As much as it irritated him then it also relieved him now. He didn't want to deal with anything else for the day.

The ride back to the home of House Stark was spent in silence. Jon idly looked at Ghost, as the direwolf run in circle around his horse, sometimes going as far as a hundred feet ahead sometimes falling back nearly as much. His skill with the horse was somewhat better, not by much, but better. Though he shouldn't except more as he only had a messy twenty points out of two hundred!

Winterfell seemed deserted if not for the guard at the gate. Most were already ready to retire after a tiring day. The stable-boy was absent, even if most of the times Jon did get his horse into the stable on his own. Making a mental note to grom his horse in the morning he also went to his chambers. The Stark family was most likely still in the dining hall if the lights and the noise was any indication. Lord Stark was busy and usually, apart from some minutes between his duty, only had time for his whole family in these hours.

Jon had already knew that he wasn't welcome there. While lord Stark and Robb wouldn't be against it, Arya, Bran and Rickon would be delightened by his presence, Lady Stark and Sansa would definitely raise their voice against it. He also knew that he wasn't calm enough to be in their presence not to mention that he lost his appetite at discovering his heritage.

Laying down on his bed he examined the book more closely. Opening it he discovered that the first page was a list of the sections of the book. There were those he already seen. His attributes, skills, perks, arvhivements and traits. There were others like help, map, inevntory or quests. His earlier question was answered when the book also informed him about it slowing down the time for the duranation of him using the book. Als the book was also invisible and untouchable for other. Ghost was the only exception as he was his companion and as a warg partner.

He curiously thumb it. He wanted to have some plan for the future and wanted to see what he should spend money on to archive it. He already stopped on the page "Personal information". His heritage was alright as he had already seen it, his loyaty to House Stark and Targaryen - even if the latter was dull for it being a hidden loyalty, was also excepted. But his sexuality had a question mark. What? Ok, he was a virgin, he could admit it to himself, but he aslo knew that he was attracted to females. He wasn't like the Red Viper, who's - quite questionable - renown reached even the North.

He didn't want to think muc about it. He had a hectic day to say at least, so he decided to deal with the rest in the 'morrow. So, under Ghost's watch he fall into the realms of dreams.

_Jon Snow_

**Heritage:**

Stark: Northener: +5 spirit and perception in exchange of 5 wisdom and fate. Ice resistance perk

Targaryen: Dragonblood: +10 spirit, but -10 intelligence. Fire resistance perks.

**Loyalty:** House Stark, (_House Targaryen_)

**Enemies:** -

**Renown:** 10/1000 (level 1)

**Sexuality:** ?

**Attraction:**

Female: 20/200

Male: 3/200

**Experience points:** 350/1200 (level 5)

**Attributes: 0**

Strenght: 21

Endurance: 22

Speed: 24

Dexterity: 28

Perception: 25

Intelligence: 25

Willpower: 38

Wisdom: 20

Charisma: 20

Fate: 20

Spirit: 32

**Skills: 0**

One handed: 55/200

Two handed: 12/200

Block: 35/200

Shield: 20/200

Archery: 35/200

Hand-to-hand: 18/200

Light armor: 35/200

Heavy armor: 11/200

Tracking: 25/200

Hunting: 27/200

Survival: 20/200

Riding: 20/200

Lieing: 20/200

Animal trainer: 15/200

Trainer: 5/200

Lore: 5/200

Manners: 5/200

Allure:5/200

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	4. HP: Death

**AN: **I decided to give an estimated time on my profile conserning my stories.

**AN2:** I will also update the "first chapter" of Shards of tales.

**AN3:** Please give me names if you want to see someone with Harry. I prefer Harry/Lily/small harem + sleeping around with others. Please no yaoi! I don't have any problem with them, but I won't make my main character one.

**1\. chapter**

_Death_

_Harry Potter woke up in a dark chamber. He had a tall, lean but muscular fame. His face was soft but had some sort of edge to it. It was framed with cobalt black hair and in the center there was two emerald like eye alight with hidden strengh behind a pair of glasses. It was circular with obsidian columns at the sides. At the center there was a throne also made of volcanic glass and emeralds with green fire pyres at either side of it. _

"_Where I am?" he said slowly getting up. He wanted to have his wand in his hand but soon found that he was in a quite difficult situation with a little breeze. He was nude and without anything at hand in an unfamiliar room with no way out. His luck didn't improve much in recent years it seemed._

"_In my realm, Harry Potter." came the response. The voice was melodic and light. Harry whipped his head in its direction and promply stepped back in shock. After the voice it came no surprise that the owner would a female, but he wasn't prepared for... for that! He was never the ladies-man but, she was gorgeous. Nay, he didn't have proper word for her. Angelical face turned to him with a little serene smile on her rosy lips. Her raven black hair flown in soft waves down to her hips with amethyst eyes alight with pure blessure looking at him. Perfect figure revealed itself to Harry, only obscured by little, black dress. Ivory skin so soft and creamy that women would kill for it. Long legs which would have man gawking at it by just the slighest shown. Breast of such size that would have teenager soiling their pants with their seeds just glancing at them. The woman only response to his rather blatant staring was a slight widening of her eyes and one arm going to her hips and thrusting it alittle to the other side._

"_Like what you see?" she asked with clear amusement._

"_What? No! I mean yes!" Harry blushed deep red in his embarassment. Strangely when the woman only gave a soft laugh at his fumblings he calmed down if only slightly. "Khm, I mean... Yes, I liked it, you are the hottest woman I ever seen! I mean you are gorgeous! And sorry for the... the starring, but you are so beautiful and... and.."_

"_Harry, love, please calm down." she was at his side in an isntant cupping his cheek in his hand "You don't need to apologies. After all it's only fair that you see some of me as I could see you as well." _

"_What?" he asked back a bit confused. Her smile transformed into a little grin as she pointed down. Harry, looking down realized what she said. He was still nude. In front of the most beautiful woman he ever seen or imagiened period! At it had a clear effect on him. He turned so red that would make a tomato proud. He tried to cover himself with his hand._

"_Would it help if I was also without clothes?" she asked, making Harry to look at her with shock. She had her hand up with her fingers ready to snap. _

"_No! That's not necessary!" he said bit louder than what needed. He would die from awkwardness. He was sure that with only her nude form would be enough to turn it even more... well, he really didn't want to go there. "Okay, please can we.. just talk about this?" he nervously run his hand through his hair "I don't know where I am, how I got there or what happened to me at all. The last I remember was that I go to bed at my aunt's."_

"_Yes, that did happen." she nodded along with him disappearing from beside him and reappearing on her throne "I choose this evening to help you Harry Potter. After all you flirted quite heavily with me in the past years not to mention those gifts you sent to me!" she smiled at him " You are quite the bold admirer, aren't you?"_

"_What? I'm sorry ma'm but I never meet you, let alone flirt! And gifts? When? And what have I sent to you?" he was beyond confused now. He never seen this lady. He doupted anyone could forget a meeting with her._

"_Oh,but you did!" she exclaimed joyously "On your first year: a troll, a cerberus, the shade of that man first in the forest then in the dungeons. Than at the second year you grew even more daring! Acromantulas, a basilisk... Do you know who I am? Or do you need more clue?" Harry did not._

"_You are Death?" he asked a little taken back at his._

"_In a sense, but I am more inclined toward the name Freya of Hel." she said with a soft smile._

"_I see. Then could you lady Freya tell me what happened?" he said with a little frown._

"_Of course. As I said you did great deeds for me and gave me gifts. I want to repay you for for it." she answered truthfully._

"_Deeds? Gifts? I...I apologies but I don't remember anything of that sort." he stammered out, only growing more confused as it gone on._

"_Mayhaps I should be more... plain in my explanation." she wondered aloud " There are few who could run from me. Tom Riddle did it with surprising cunningness. He will meet his end afore or late. But it's still a sore point for me to have someone cheat Death. You helped me with him greatly. And for this you shall receive rewards."_

"_What did I do?" he asked at last._

"_There are several ways to archive immortality, both in the figurative sense and literally. Tom Riddle had chossen one of the most disgusting way to reach his dream. He divided his soul, and anchored them in different objects and beings."_

"_How many? How many of him is out there?" Harry asked wide eyed at the prosprect os it._

"_He intended to have six of these, horcruxes in your people terminology. You already destroyed two. Can you guess what these were?" she asked quirking an elegant eyebrow. Harry wanted to just have the answers but sensed that the goddess in front of him would be displeased if he didn't at least try. And angering Death wasn't high on Harry's 'to do list'. Objects... he only destroyed two object associated with Voldemort and the prophecy was never in his hand. That left..._

"_The diary?" he asked at last. Seeing Freya nod his shoulder slumbed " I don't have any idea for the other." he confessed._

"_It's alright beloved." Freya said "As even Riddle didn't know of it's existence as it was the seventh horcrux and he only wanted six. It was an accident."_

"_Accident?! You can create somehting like that by accident?" he asked wide eyed. He would be the first to confess that he never studied the real depth of magic, but he from what knew it wasn't possible._

"_It happens when you use powers you don't fully understand. Making a horcrux requires mine power: the killing curse. It makes it an even greater insult to me. But that's other matter entirely... Riddle always made them when he kills someone noteworthy. One such was when he intended to kill the one who was destinied to kill him..." she looked at him pointedly at his scar._

"_Me?" he was going numb. That...that asnwered why his connection with the Dark Lord. He could feel his emotions, his mere presence. "A part of his soul is in me?!" he was horrified and more than a little nauseous at the thought._

"_No. Not anymore beloved. You destroyed that part not a long ago." she replied soothingly._

"_When? How?" he asked back while relief floded him._

"_He tried to posses you. You not only threw him out but destroyed the soul part in yourself with one go." her smile was full of pride._

"_I see." he slowly calming down. It still didn't made easier knowing that for fivteen year he had a part of that madman's soul in himself._

"_Now that I have explained that we should move on your rewads..." Freya grined at him giddily as if the prospect of doing so feeled with her with happines."You will see both of it soon enough."_

"_What?" but before he could do anything the world blacked out._

In Little Whining, on the Privet Drive, under number four there was a room. The smallest of all bedroom in the house. If someone seen it they would consider it natural in contrast to the other rooms unnatural cleaness. In this room on the bed of the room laid a brooding teenager.. Or would be if he didn't just woke up from a dream. Was it a dream?

Harry wasn't sure about his dream. He sat up and put his glasses then pulled them off. He looked around and saw everything. His vision was near perfect. He always had to wear glasses before but now... He felt conflicted. This kind of things doesn't repair themselves certainly not under a night. Did this mean that his dream wasn't a dream but real? Should he speak about it with someone? Before he wouldn't hesitate to contact Dumbledore about this. But after Sirius' death things changed.

He didn't know how he felt. He was sad, angry but most of all numb. He just couldn't bring himself to care about it. He just couldn't help it. Sirius was an older brother and an uncle in one man for he. It didn't matter that they only saw eachother scarlely at most. He was what others called family to him. The only true family he had.

He was back at his "family" since a few days. Maybe four or five. He will have to count it latter as he didn't really know. What did Dumbledore think when he decided that he should go back here for the summer? His uncle and aunt who despised his very existence, his cousin who was only an overgrown, spoiled bully. Did he think that they would help him get over of losing Sirius? Seriously?

But, he thought about. Truthfully a part of his mind – disturbingly in Hermione's voice, become his voice of reason. If he by some reason did blame himself for it then what about Tonks? Or Remus? Tonks dualed against Bellatrix if she defeated her then... Or Remus for he did not protect his best friend back. But he did not blame them, could not do so. Tonks - while dangerous, was simply put not good enough to beat the mad Black woman, at least not without help. Remus tried to defend Sirius, Harry seen at least one Deatheater trying to curse his godfather just to be put down by the werewolf. Did that mean that he was to blame?

He was just a teenager. He did what a child would do. Didn't thought ahead. Why should he? He never did and before the Ministry it always worked out more or less. Truly, nobody should except him not to fall into Voldemort's trap. Particuarly after this year, where nobody told him anything and his anxiousness was at the stratosphere.

He shouldn't blame himself for what happened to Sirius, at least not just himself. Was he at fault? Yes, of course. Were others at fault? Yes. Bellatrix, Voldemort and Dumbledore as well. Would Sirius want him to mope around? No. Had he other friends? Yes. He needed them and if the Prochesy was true they needed him. He had to stay strong for them. And his friends were there to help him. But first and foremost he had to help himself. He promised himself to defend them from Voldemort. Looking at his nightwatch he could see that it was five o'clock in the morning. He didn't bother trying sleeping, being pretty sure that he would fail after this.

Fortunately the Dursleys didn't bothered him this summer. Maybe after what happened last summer maybe because of Madeye speaking with them – Harry assumed that it was the later, but they didn't speak more than two dozen word to him in the time he was there including the instructions to do his choires. Harry was more than happy to oblige them.

He started to get ready for the day, when he took notice some other changes made to him. He was little taller, nothing very serious maybe a inch and half. What really gave him a shock was that he gained muscle. While he will never be a bodybuilder or even as big as Charlie or Bill Weasley, but his muscles become highly defined. He also noticed that some of his scar like his left knee or the scar on his right arm from the basilisk didn't ache anymore. He felt like he had a new body. Had Freya, because he started to really believe that his dream wasn't a dream at all, gave him a new body? Sadly he couldn't find answer to his question. Not this time.

As he didn't have to make breakfast and already done what needed to be done on that week, he had free it was unwelcome, the jobs, doing something took away his mind from recent events, namely Sirius' death.

Now, however he had to keep his promise to himdself. He will defend his friends from Voldemort and his eelk. He had know that the first steps would be the hardest to take. But knowing Hermione for five years gave him a new perspective on it. As he didn't know where to start training himself right now he could finish his schoolwork and after that he could focus on getting stronger.

He just started his transfiguration essay, when Fawkes appeared above his bed with a flash of fire, dropping a letter on his pillow. Harry was instantly on his feet with wand pointing at the majestic bird chest. Just to lower it seeing the bird reprocheful eyes as he landed on his shoulder. He apologitecally stroked the bird's beak.

„Sorry Fawkes. I'm rather jumpy..."

The phoenix croned softly and sang a beautiful if short melody. Harry, as always, felt as if the song filled him with happiness and strenght.

„Thanks Fawkes. I'm pretty sure that Hedwig wouldn't mind you having a bit of water from her bowl if you need some..."

The phoenix chirped thankfully as he flew to the owl's bowl and drank a little. Harry meanwhile turned his attention to the letter on his bed. What could Dumbledore want this early in the morning? It was only a little bit after six after all.

_Dear Harry,_

_I'm sorry to interrupt your sleep, but I'm afraid certain things were brought to my attention which we need to discuise._

_If you are agreeable I would visit you this evening at 8 o'clock. Please send your response with Fawkes._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

Harry of course had the response down in a minute, or the first version anyway. He had a very strong feeling that it was only because of Dumbledore's gentle personality that it was worded as a request instead of an order. But while you could write it many way, elegantly and brutish, an order was still an order. The final version was down at the five minutes mark.

_Dear Dumbledore_

_You are welcome to come anytime you want. I will notify my relatives of your arrival._

_I would like to apologies for what I have done in your office. I will of course pay for the damage i cause and accept any and all punishment you decide on._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Harry Potter_

There. It was simple and to the point. His rampage inside the headmaster officde was uncalled for. Yes, he was furious. Yes, he had all right to be. But, that didn't allow him to destroy the headmaster – mostlikely - priceless equipments. He will need to control himself if he ever wants to be seen as an adult and not like a child throwing a temper trantum.

After Fawkes disappeared with the reply Harry started to think the cause of the headmaster sudden visit to Privet Drive. There were several posibilities. The least likely that he will come to take him away, prefereably to the Burrow. He was pretty sure that it was not the case. He only stayed at Privet Drive for a week. More than likely he is coming to anonunce that Harry would need to stay the entire summer there. Or something realy important came up. He could only think of someone's dieing. But he waved it of. It was no use of being that negative about it. For now he will inform Petunia about it and go back to his essays.

Harry couldn't remember when was the last time a day went that slow. It felt like a year. At last, exactly at 8 o'clock, the door bell rang. Harry who was at the hall being prepared for the headmaster arrival, opened the door a moment later. There was the tall and thin figure of Albus Dumbledore, the wisest and greatest wizard of the age. With his white, long beard and hair, reaching his waist and blue robe he was the image of the Merlin style wizard in muggle eyes. His brilliant, soul-piercing blue eyes, usully twinkling with mischief and kindness, now bore into Harry's emerald, but there was a gentle spark in their deepth.

„Good evening Harry. May I come in?" he asked kindly as he was just a grandfather visiting his favourite grandson. Harry hastily stepped back letting the old wizard entry to the house.

„Of course professor. Please do so."

The old wizard stepped inside the house closing the door behind himself. He cast his glance along the hall. The pristine floor and walls, the closed door of the sitting-room. And for just a second he gazed at the closet under the stairs.

„Your relatives don't want to meet me, I take it." he said inclining to the closed door at the other side of the hall.

„My apologies sir. They want us to... go to my room and after that, you to leave the house without their notice." Harry explained a bit embarassed.

„I see." Dumbledore nodded „Well, for now we shall abide for their whishes." and with that the headmaster waved at the stairs indicating that Harry should lead him. Harry was a bit wide eyed as he did so. What did the headmaster meant by „for now"? His eyes only got bigger as he had seen Dumbledore's arm. The right arm's skin seemed to have burned itself coal black and craggy but the muscle was still intact under it. The proffesor noticed his stare, but just smiled gently at him making Harry blushing at getting caught at starring.

"It's a story of another time Harry. We have much more important matters to attend than a minor injury."

Harry did not know how the old wizard could call something like that a minor injury but let it slide and continued his way to his room. Inside the room Dumbledore again looked around just like down the hall. He sat down on the offered chair at Harry's desk. Harry sat on his bed waiting for the headmaster to start the conversation.

„You must be wondering about the reason of my visit, Harry." he said with a searching gaze „I have done great mistakes regarding of you. I want to make amends Harry."

„I don't understand, sir." Harry said confused.

„Yes, I believe you don't. Please let me explain. The blood wards defend you from anyone who wish you harm while you call this house your home. Such beings cannot step in the border no matter what. " the old man said with a heavy sigh. "Which allowed your aunt and uncle to mistreat you."

„I see." Harry never thought that the headmaster would change his opinion on that matter „No, in honestly I don't: how could they do what they did. They never abused me, not in the physical sense. They..."

"...neglected you." Dumbledore said sadly "There is the problem. Your mother's spell is simple in the sheer genius of it. The ward didn't let anyone with harmful for you. Petunia and Vernon thought that they are doing the right thing."

"By getting magic out of me..." Harry finished. "So, what you say is that because the wards didn't perceived it as abuse but simply as neglect..."

"The ward didn't do much for them." Dumbledore hummed thoughtfully "But your mother was not someone one should cross, I believe. I don't know if you noticed but your aunt, uncle and cousin has some quite disturbing characteristic."

"Yes." said Harry confused at what had anything to do with it.

"The ward, while not outright harmed them for it, your mother's magic altered them to reflect their innerself. Petunia who likes to see and hear anything and was so proud of her body had her beauty robed of her. Vernon who's greed know no bound had his body consume all and let go of no more than necessery. Dudley Dursley of course has stepped into his father's footsteps. The letter I left behind on that night I warned them, but they did not heed my call."

"I see." Harry always wondered about it. He had seen the older pictures. Petunia was once beautiful, she even did some modelling in her college days. Vernon was a star rugby player, one of the best in his team. He always thought that they just let them go, but it was impossible. How could Petunia's once strawberry blonde hair turn into sandy-brown, her neck lenghtening two inches. "What happens now?"

"Now, you have several prospect to choose from. You can stay and remain here 'till august when the Weasley family will come back from visiting young Bill in Romania. You can also spend it at various safehouses. Both of oreder members and others would host you at them. In particiluar Ms. Granger and her parents of course would be delightened to receive you. Another person would also love to spend her summer with you. She could also teach you many different disciplines." Dukmbledore said neutraly, not indicating favour for any of them. "If I may: I would advise you to think about them long and hard. There isn't a wrong choice, Harry."

"That safehouse... it isn't the Grimmauld Place, is it?" he asked.

"No, but I fear that you will need to visit it at least briefly it this summer." the headmaster answered "And mayhaps Harry it would be better to visit it. It isn't healthly when you can't go into a building."

The young man had fallen silent. There was a reaason why he should go to at least two location. The Privet Drive didn't deserve even a moment of consideration. He will leave it for good. The Grangers were the most tempting of the three. A relaxing summer with his frineds, truly nearly his adoptive family. If it was any of his previous summers he would have immediately made the Granger family his choice. That was the easy thing to do. To do nothing just let the world do its work while he has one last summer as a child. But the right thing to do was to train, because one day he will have to battle the most powerful Dark Lord of all time.

"I think... I think I should go and prepare myself for the war. With the person, you said, the witch who could teach me a lot." he said at last. Dumbledore noded at that.

"The person who will teach you did say that this will be your choice. I see that her assumations were right. We shouldn't keep her waiting. Shall we go?"

"Mmm, can I have a minute, sir? I didn't packed my things." Harry said at last. He never expected that he could leave this house.

"I see. Do you need my help, my boy?" Harry only nodded at the older nab question. Dumbledore just waved his wand making all of his things flying into his trunk.

"There you go. Now let's leave this place."

At the hall it seemed that Dumbledore wanted to go inside the living room and have a chat with Harry's relatives. Glancing at him the old wizard thought better of it and only left a white envelope on the table in the room.

Fortunately the street was deserted, although Harry sensed that it had to do more with Dumbledore than luck. In the end it mattered little. The old wizard raised his left arm when they arrived on the edge of the property and preassumbly the wards.

"Please take my hand, Harry, and don't let go." he ordered gently.

He did so and the next he knew was the feeling of being pulled through a tight tube. Not the most enjoyable sensation of his life. Looking up he could see a little house in the middle of a forest clearing. Dumbledore payed little mind to the surroundings, but Harry glanced to the sides. The scenery was the same: forest on either side of him and in the dark he couldn't see much more than that.

Stepping inside the house a voice greeted them.

"At last! I started to get worried!"

Dumbledore replied something, but Harry didn't hear it, nor cared for that matter. There at the entrance of the kitchen stood the owner of the voice. A fairly tall woman, with a body that rivaled Freya's, her scarlet hair and emerald eyes. It was Lily Evans-Potter.

The last thing that he seen was the woman turning towards him then darkness descended upon him. Again.


	5. Fairy Tail: Returning Home

AN: I will say it again. This fic (if it will reach that point) will have heavy lemons.

AN2: I will mainly use the manga and not the anime!

AN3: Some canon things have been changed aside the fact that Natsu went on a training trip. See at the end for others.

AN4: As usual please review and PM me if you have question(s), idea(s) etc.

AN5: I don't own the Fairy Tail franchise, whole or part of it. I don't make money from writing this fic or any other associated with this manga/anime. I only use them for mine and others amusement. I only own those thing my own making (characters, techniques, vehicles etc).

* * *

1\. chapter:

_Returning home_

July 2, X784

He idly looked at the landscape outside the window of the train. It was three years since he was in Fiore. He left his home, his friends, comrades, family behind, in order to become strong enough. At first just that he could make them proud, to make his father proud of him. Now, after seeing the Continent for what it was it changed. He will protect them for there was darkness out there which could destroy them in a flash.

His sensitive ears picked on a few sentences outside their cabin:

"Salamander-sama? He is in Hargeon? Really?" asked a girl full of awe.

"Yes! Do you think we can get an autograph from him? I would love to have something from him!" answered a second feminime voice as excited as the first.

"He is sooo mysterious! No one knows his face, yet he destroyed dozens of dark guilds! He is like a hero, fighting evil from the shadows!" a third voice (again a girl) added.

He was far from impressed at learning this. Whoever was in Hargeon was certainly not the Salamander. He cared not if he built the Salamander's prestige or wanted to destroy it. That man had no business with that name and he will make sure that idiot will remember it.

"Happy! Wake up! It seems that we need to stop at Hargeon before going to Magnolia!" he said to his companion, a blue furred cat. The animal only opened one eye lazily looking at the human who woke him up.

"Natsu, did you really need to do this?" he asked – in Natsu's opinion whinned "I had a very good dream: there was like a bazillion fish there!"

"And no cat girls?" Natsu jested with a half grin.

"You are stupid Natsu... They were feeding me!" Happy answered with a grin. Then his face turned a little more serious "Why do we need to stop at Hargeon?"

"Some idiot is using the Salamander name. We should teach him that he shouldn't lie about such things."

"Aye!"

Hargeon was the largest port in the Kingdom of Fiore, thus it came no surprise that finding one man seemed to be quite the challenge. But when this man proclaimed hisself as a famous, rumouredly S-class mage... Let's just say that the search become several times easier.

But before they could even begin it in earnest, thy ran into someone. More precisely someone ran into Natsu. A girl, the same age as Natsu, in a light white top and blue mini skirt fell on her butt, while the mage looked at her in surprise.

"Sorry! I didn't really payed attention to where I go. Here, let me help you!" he offered his hand to the girl, who seemed to blush.

"It-it's nothing! Nothing at all!" she shuttered. "I am Lucy! Nice to meet you!" she said as she accepted the help.

"Natsu Dragneel." he introduced himself while looking at the beauty in front of him. She had bright blond hair which flown like liquid gold in the gentle breeze. Innocent, sea blue eyes flutered as she gazed at him addoringly. Legs, going forever, a generous swell of bust and butt. She was still more cute than sexy though. But definitely had a killer body.

On the other hand Lucy also wacthed tha man who helped her to her feet. He was in one word a hunk. Wild, blood red hair, obsidian eyes and angular face. Tall, easily towering over her. His chiseled chest was bare thanks to only wearing a sleeveless, golden trimed black vest with it's zipper down, allowing his six, no, eight pack to be shown. Along with those strong, well defined arms. The only problem was that he wore a combat trouser and boot so she couldn't see the lower half of him in this detail, bu t even with the trouser and a strange belt which seemed like made of some reptilian scale. He wasn't like most boys she did fan on. He wasn't slim, angelic. He was dark, primal and nearly demonic.

"You dropped that." the hunk... Natsu! His name is Natsu. She could fantasize about the this man at night! She meant never! Calming down a bit she noticed the last issue of Weekly Sorcerer Magazine at her feet which she avidly read. So much she didn't even notice a gorgeus man, until she ran into him literally and who was now the number one on her "who do you want for boyfriend" list.

"Yes, thanks." she thanked him as he picked it up.

"Are you a mage?" Natsu asked curiously even if a great deal of it's readers weren't mage, he could feel that the girl in front of him had much more eternano than the average folks.

"Yes, I use Celestial Magic. How do you know?" she asked.

"Lucky guess... Which guild are you part of?" Natsu asked, tilting his head trying to remember if he ever heard of her.

"I didn't join any... But I will, it's my dream to be a member of Fairy Tail!" Lucy said with a smile.

"That's nice. I think it will be pretty easy for you to do so." he answered remembering a certain old man's certain antics.

"It's not that simple! Fairy Tail is considered the strongest guild in the country. You can't just join them on a whim!" she said as if talking to a child. Natsu just grinned at her.

"Nah, I believe that you can do it."

"Aye!" the cat said.

"Thanks guys." Lucy smiled back at them. Until... "What the hell?! That cat can talk!"

"Yeah, he is my partner: Happy." Natsu introduced the two, though Lucy seemed to remain in shock at the sight of a talking cat.

The ackward silence which settled on them was shattered by the three girls who Natsu heard on the train running to the central square of the town to meet 'Salamander-sama'. Lucy got out of her shock hearing that.

"Sorry guys, but I have to go! I need to meet Salamander-sama." with that she sprinted after the other three girls. Natsu just shook his head at her.

"What's with this attitude?" he asked tilting his head - again -, not really understanding why would Lucy go this excited by hearing about 'Salamander-sama'.Wait! Salamander-sama? That's interesting. A grin made it's way onto his face "Let's go Happy!"

"Aye!"

In the center of Hargeon stood the Maria Chatedral (third greatest church in Fiore), named after the grandmother of Toma E. Fiore, the kingdom current leader, who had aided many of the country's hospital. Even now, nearly thirty year after her death among the people of Fiore called uppon Blessed Maria or Maria the Kind. To it's right stood the city hall, a three story high, white building. Across of it was the courthouse, nearly identical to the other building, but it had light yellow mortar on it. The last side was occupied the library. It was made from red stones and marble. The other distinction of it was the towers with domes on it, giving it an exotic look. Not too surprising considering it was desingned by southern achitect, while the other three were made by a fioren one.

Between these four buildings lay the central square of the city. There was a big crowd, forming a circle around a group of people, led by a man in his early twenties. He smiled charmingly at the inner crowd - mainly composed of teenage girls - and produced some simple purple fire balls to entertain it. Then a wave of magic passed through the square, leaving everyone breatless for a moment.

"Hey man, that wasn't nice." came a deep voice from the roof of the library. Looking there the crowd could see Natsu crouching at the edge, looking at the leader with clear contempt in his eyes."Who are you?"

"I am the Salamander! A famous mage from Fairy Tail!" the man shouted at Natsu.

"And how long have you been in that guild?" Natsu asked curiously.

"For my whole life, you idiot!" he shouted back.

"That's interesting." Natsu pointed at his arm. There, just below the shoulder was the mark of Fairy Tail in red "I never once have seen you in the guild hall!"

With that the young man jumped off the roof, making the retiring crowd gasp in surprise. The people in the square could only stare at the two mage, wondering what happens now. Lieing about being a part of a legal guild was considered a very serious crime.

"You little shit!" the man shouted.

"He is Bora the Prominence from Titan Nose. He was kicked out." Happy said floating near Lucy in the crowd with angel wings sprouting from his shoulder.

"Damn it! Take this brat! Prominence Typhoon!" Bora stretched his arm wide and from his body a spiraling column of fire surged forward. Natsu stood still, letting the magic hit him. There were shouts from the crowd, noone wanted to go to the fireball which formed where the Fairy Tail mage stood.

"Hah, brats are still brats... I don't have any pridde destroying an insects like you." Bora said with little to no emotion in his voice. He just turned his back to the flames when a slurping sound rang out.

"I s that so?" asked Natsu's voice from the flames. All, but Happy watched with slack jaws as the young man eat the flames of Bora's attack "You should train a lot more. I never eaten flames tasting as bad as these in my entire life!"

"You think you can defeat me, gaki?!" Bora shouted in anger. Natsu just grinned at him.

"Allow me to demostrate the difference between us." he said. For a moment nothing happened, them a his magic brust out, taking a form of a huge column made of bright gold and silver fire. All felt as suddenly an ocean was over their heads. In a way it was true but it was an ocean of magical power. Non could move, save Bora for Natsu's power was focused on him sending to him to his knees.

"Salamander! Enogh of this!" came a sudden voice on the other side of the crowd "In the name of the Magic Council let us through!" And just like that, the sea of people divided in two allowing the group of rune knights to go to Natsu without pumping in anyone. The leader was a slim, tall man wearing the uniform of a captain. His black hair was up in a knot and a pair of glasses were in front of his purple eyes. Seeing the group approching Natsu cut off his magical aura to a barely noticeable level.

"Lahar! Good to see you!" he grinned at the frustated captain.

"Salamander." Lahar eyes twiched "I said it a thousand times! It's captain Lahar to you!"

"If I didn't use it before why do you think I will do it from now?" Natsu asked, sincerely curious, making Lahar sigh.

"It doesn't matter. Why did you release a third of your magical power in the town centre? With your reserve it's highly dangerous..."

"Because of those guys..." Natsu inclined towards Bora's group.

"That's Bora the Prominence! Our Intelligence said that he fled the country after his crimes came to light." Lahar said shocked at the mage presence.

"He did." Natsu said "He joined a dark guild, Crime Star in Bosco. This was his first mission I think. That guild was deep in the slave-trade, Lahar, and I mean really deep."

"And how do you know that?" Lahar asked with a raised eyebrow even when he motioned the rune knights to apprehend Bora and his accosiates.

"I destroyed that guild not a week ago." Natsu shrugged his shoulder, not truly caring the shocked looks he got from the others save Lahar "The guild master had their mission very detailed on paper. Idiot."

"Which is fortunateous for us." Lahar said with a little smile. His face turned serious "Those informations..."

"There you go." Natsu said as in a puff some documents appeared which he handed to Lahar at once "And for the power releasing thing... I only unleashed a quarter of mine... Didn't want to fight with civs nearby."

"I see." Lahar said "Bora was wanted for three quarter million jewels. Some will go to repairing the square." there he looked at the broken cobbles where Natsu stood "But the rest will be on your account at the end of the week, I promise."

"Thanks Lahar!" Natsu grinned at the captain, but he waved away the crimson haired man's gratitude.

"Nay, it should be me thanking you. You defeated a dangerous criminal without much damage to, well anything. I couldn't ask for more." he said.

"If you say so..." Natsu replied "Well, I want to get back to Fairy Tail at least at tomorrow, so I have to go. See ya later, Lahar!" he turned towards the trainway station, but his way was blocked by the crowd looking in awe at him. Lahar chuckled at his predictament and left to the court-house.

"Salamander! This is Jason from Weekly Sorcerer. Can I ask you some question?" asked an overly excited blond haired man.

"Sure, why not?" Natsu said with his usual grin "What'ya want to know?"

"Cool! First question. We can see the guild mark on your arm, but master Makarov never gave straight answer to our questions about you being a member. Why is that?"

"Honestly? I don't know, but master is wiser than nearly any other being I have ever met so I imagien that he has some reason for that..." he shrugged "You probably should ask this to him and not to me."

"I see. Next question. Rumours said that you traveled abroard for the last few years. Is that true?"

"Pretty much, yeah. But I also spent several months training inside Fiore and doing quests for the Magical Council and others."

"Cool. Can you give us some basic information on yourself? Likes, dislikes, hobbies, dream?"

"Well, let see. My name is Natsu Dragneel. My first three likes: my nakamas, my father and my guild. I dislikes mainly the dark guilds. My hobby is writing, fishing with Happy and exploring interesting places. My dream is to find my father." Natsu listed off.

"Cool. Does it mean that you are the same 'Salamander', author to the 'Wandering Mage' novel series?" asked Jason. The crowd excistement grow to new height hearing the question and waited for the answer with baited eyes.

"It's true." Natsu said with a raised eyebrow.

"So COOL!" Jason threw his hand up "Does that mean that those stories are based on true stories?"

"Most of them are my adventures. But there are some myths and other mages' quests in there."

"Cool! Last two questions. Are you an S-class mage?" the reporter asked.

"Officially? No, but I had done my fair share of S-class jobs..."

"COOl! Last question: are you single?" the female part of the crowd visibly perked up hearing the reporter asking that.

"At the moment yes."

"I'm sure that many among our readers will be glad to hear that! Thanks for the interview, Salamander."

"My pleasure." Natsu said, but Jason already ran away to report back to the office. Tilting his head in confusion then deciding that it didn't really matter Natso turned towards Lucy.

"Hey, Lucy! Let's go!"

"Heh?! Where?" a wide eyed Lucy cried out as the other females gave her the 'Evil-Eye'.

"To Magnolia, of course! You want to join Fairy Tail, don't you?" Natsu asked with a big grin.

"Yeah, but do you truly believe I can be a member?" Lucy asked embarassed.

"Lucy." the fire mage said "You don't have anything to lose. Many ruin their life because they don't grab the opportunities when they arouse. You don't have to go to the deep-end at once. Just take a step toward your dream. I will be there with you and believe me, Fairy Tail will welcome you with open arms and help you archiving anything you want."

"Thanks, Natsu." she said with a smile, even while tears gathered in her eyes.

"Sooo... Will you come with us?" Natsu asked with a grin while Happy floated near his shoulder.

"Uhum!"

July 4, x784, Magnolia

"Welcome to Fairy Tail, Lucy." Natsu said with a gentle smile as Lucy stared at the guild hall in amazement. "Let's go inside."

With that he opened the giant wooden doors and stepped inside with the blonde girl following him. The building seemed almost even larger than from the outside. There were several tables both round and rectangular with mages sitting around. The hall was filled with the voice of at least fifty mages speaking at once making it nearly impossible to hear anything at all. Most were so engrossed in it that they didn't even noticed the new arrivals. It was when they arrived at the bar that a silver haired beauty noticed them.

"Ah, customers! Welcome." came the voice from Fairy Tail arguably most famous mage, Mirajane Strauss. She had a curvy, voluptuous figure, with a swell of a womanly hips, mile long legs, more than generous and ample bust and round and firm behind clad in a pink dress. Her gentle smile, full lips, wide, blue eyes and silver hair reaching her hips only added to her beauty.

"Yo, Mira! It's been a while!" said Natsu raising an arm in geeting. Mira eyes widened a bit, not remembering meeting this really handsome fellow. She blushed in embarassment at the thought.

"Aye!" came Happy voice, raising her from such internal conflict.

"Is that Happy?! Then... Is it you, Natsu? You really grown up!" she exclaimed in surprise. Hearing it the entire guild become silent as a graveyard.

"Yeah, thanks." Natsu said with a grin. Mira then enveloped the fire mage in a thight hug. Natsu seemed surprised at first them returned the it just as affectionately.

"Welcome home Natsu!" came the shouts from the mages sitting at the tables.

"Yo. Good to be back." answered Natsu as he walked off to greet the other members.

"What's is this all about? They behave like they didn't see him for months." Lucy wondered aloud.

"That's because we didn't." came Mirajane soft voice from behind her "He had gone on a training trip three years ago and we only meet with him once on a mission. It's good to have him back."

"Mirajane-san!" Lucy squaled, seeing her (and many more females') idol. Mirajane only smiled at her.

"Ah, please call me Mira. Everyone does. You came with Natsu, right? Do you want to join the guild by any chance?" she asked her ever present smile still on her lovely face.

"Y-y-yes." Lucy shuttered.

"Natsu, please come back and introduce your friend to us!" Mirajane said (louder than usual) to the crimson haired man.

"Ah, yes. My apologies, I forgot about you for a minute." Natsu came back with an easy smile, while the entire guiléd seemed suprised, again.

"Who is this? It can't be Natsu..."

"Natsu apologize for something? Really?"

"He sure grown up, didn't he?"

"Well, then let'start it, shall we?" Natsu clapped his hand together. "It seems you already know Mirajane... Her younger siblings are over there. The big guy with white hair is Elfman, the girl is Lisanna." he indicated towards a table near to the bar. There was a big, although youn man with a white mane of hair and a cute silver haired girl. "The old man over there is Wakaba. He is a senior members, so he knows a lot of things along with his parner Macao, who isn't there at the moment... Well, they are big perverts by the way." the middle aged guy with a pipe in his mouth cried out a startled "Hey!", while Natsu continued "There is the Shadow Gear team. The guys are Jet and Droy. The blue haired girl is Levy and she is suuuuper intelligent, so maybe it would be better if you come to her with your problems. Let's see... there are Bisca and Alzack our sniper team. They are also quite fond of animals, so if you want a pet you can talk to them about it. The idiot pimp over there is Loke." he said pointing to an orange haired man with two girls at his side "And the gorgeous girl at the bar is Cana." the guild was silenced, again.

"See?! I said it can't be Natsu! He doesn't even know females exists!"

"Oh, so he noticed girls? Good for him."

"They grow up so fast!"

"Oh, why thank you Natsu for the compliment." the slender girl at the bar, Cana smiled and sent a wink at the fire mage. She was also shapely - even if not on par with Mira -, and largely exposed. Giving a nice view with her bikini clad bust. Her long legs was clad in a pair of brown pants. Her auburn hair fall on her back in soft waves, while her hazel eyes twinkled in mirth seeing the chaos Natsu created in mere minutes after arriving "I didn't know you noticed us in that regard."

"Hard not to, when all my female guildmates are gorgeous in a way." Natsu deadpanned and Lucy had to agree with him. Mirajane and Cana had the bodies of buxom models, while Levy and Lisanna were cute, still shapely enough to be desired by men. Bisca was between the two group, but that didn't mean in the slighest that she wasn't attractive. "I think I mentioned everyone who I better know. Everyone, this is Lucy. She wants to be a member of Fairy Tail, please help her along."

"What about me flame-brain?" came an annoyed male voice from the side.

"Ah yes, the cie-bastard is Grey. Excuse me, I have to attend to his face with my fist." and with that Natsu started to stride towards the dark haired man in nothing...? Lucy couldn't deide if she should laugh or cry (or just start ogling the exposed abs and arms... the mages of the guild were in great shape!) seeing the infamous mages of Fairy Tail starting a brawl. Natsu knocked Grey back with one punch, which enraged the other mage bit his counter attack was swiftly caught by the fire mage who again tossed him to the side, this time into Elfman. They nearly started using magic, but a great shadow fall upon them.

"Cut it out, you fools!" it thundered making Lucy shaking in fear and frozing all mages in the hall.

"Master, I didn't know you were here." Mirajane smiled at the giant.

"I had to come downstairs, after the ruckus you brats caused!" he said back, sunding a bit more normal, but still frightening.

"Oh, Master! Natsu and Happy came back! And they even brought a girl with them!" Mira squaled in happines, beaming at the giant.

"Huh? New member? I see. Still, " the giant turned towards the grinning Natsu "it's your fault that I couldn't finish my paperwork!" with that he brought one giant arm down the young man. Much to everybody's shock – save Happy, Natsu, muscles bulging, caught the arm.

"Yo, jii-san! I see nothing changed here!" he said with a laugh, while the giant pulled back his punch.

"And you have gotten stronger, Natsu." he said with obvious warm "Welcome home, brat." the giant then started getting smaller and smaller, till the figure became an extremely small, old man, with balding head and a moustache in an orange jester outfit.

"He become soo tiny!" exclaimed Lucy.

"He is Master Makarov, the Fairy Tail guildmaster." Mirajane injected as she moved behind the bar while Natsu and Lucy sat down at the bar stools next to Cana. Makarov sat on to the counter on the bar with a pint of ale appearing in his hands.

"Don't let his size fool you." advised Natsu "He is one of the most powerful mage you will ever see. He is the fourth Wizard Saint after all..."

"Wizard Saint?" Lucy asked confused at the title.

"Fourth?" asked Mira also confused. Makarov himself eyed the fire wizard curiously.

"The Wizard Saints is a group of ten mage of extreme prowess." Natsu explained "And Master is the fourth among them."

"Wow." Lucy said amazed at it.

"I didn't know there was a hierarcy among the Saints, Master." Mira said to the old man.

"We don't really advertize that, Mira." Makarov said with a sigh "And don't be fooled by the title. We, Wizard Saints aren't the only powerful mages around..."

"True." Natsu agreed "But all of you are S-class mages, and not the average type either. Even if the Council appoint them, every member is powerful. The only ones clearly above you are those four and maybe the leader of the worst dark guilds."

"Those four?" Mira and Lucy asked simultariously, while the entire guild started to pay attention to the conservation.

"Yeah, the Four Gods of Ishgaal." Natsu said "Four mages of incredible powers. They aren't even considered humans, because they are said to have broken the potential of normal humans."

"Shut up, Flame-Brain!" came the voice of Grey "We don't want to hear idiotic tales from you."

"But Grey, both the History of Fiore and the History of Ishgaal mentions them! " the cute bluenette, Levy said with a pout. Grey seemed visibly shaken at the thought.

"Yes, they aren't myths or tales." Makarov said at last "What Natsu said was the truth: those four are on a level you lot can't even imagine. Most mages doesn't even know about them aside the fact that they exist (and even that seems to become less likely) let alone meet with one. Natsu, how did you know about them? Or the fact that I am the fourth wizard saint?"

"I had heard about the ranking system from a council member... Doesn't matter in the end, do it?" Natsu shrugged with an easy smile on his face "For the Four Gods... I met with one of them, more specifically the fourth." he said with his smile turning into a grin.

"No way."

"What was he like?"

"And what could he do?" asked Grey curious at this powerful mage abilities.

"He is extremely powerful. I have seen him turning a desert of the size of shire Magnolia into a forest!" he answered causing all of them to gasp in surprise. They knew just from what Makarov told them at they were undoubtely powerful, but this was insane.

"That's the difference between us, who are called mortals and those who can have the title of god." said Makarov solemnly. The guild fall silent again, each member thinking what they just heard.

"Nah, doesn't matter I will beat all of them!" Natsu boisterously exclaimed.

"You Flame-Brain? You can't even defeat me, let alone those!" scoffed Grey, which cause Natsu to kick him in the face. Which in turn caused another brawl to start.

"Do you honestly needed to do that?" asked Makarov resignedly Natsu, who escaped the fight early on.

"Well, that serious mood didn't felt like it belonged here, so I did something against it." Natsu explained sagely, nodding along the way.

"True enough." the guild master nodded back.

"Don't encourage him!" Lucy cried out, while Cana and Mira giggled at the two mage.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that, my dear. You want to join, no? Well, let's do it now! Mira, be a dear and get the stamp."

"Right away Master!" the beautiful barmaid chirped happily. None, but Cana noticed as Natsu's eyes followed the silver-haired woman ass as she took the stairs. Lucy and Makarov seemed engrossed in the fight, the girl in a outraged awe, Makarov amused at the antics of his brats even if he will deny allowing it to ever happen.

Only two minutes later, Lucy had the guild's mark on her hands in bright pink colour. Which she eagerly showed to the beamused Makarov, Natsu, Mira, Cana and Happy. The two girls even hugged her calling her adorable, just as the arriving Lisanna did.

"Stop it this instant!" Makarov bellowed again, causing the fight to stop at once "We have a new member today: Lucy! Let's party!"

"Yeah!"

When Natsu and Happy arrived at their house it was well past midnight. The two had large grin on their face. It didn't matter that the floor had a fine layer of dust on it or that the air could use a little wind (which they did) or that it was a complete mess to begin with.

"It's good to be home." Natsu said as he laid down on his hammock.

"Aye!"

* * *

**I made several changes to canon:**

1\. I made the Gods of Ishgaal and the Wizard Saints two different group. It allows me much more freedom with the characters.

2\. I made Fiore much bigger than in cannon: cannon Seven and Bosco are now both part of Fiore and Stella became Bosco. Again this will give me freedom with the fics. (And the mangaka said that he will try to remain in Fiore, so it will be better in the long run.) (I will try to upload themap to one site.)

3\. Lisanna didn't 'die' two year prior. (Clearly from the way I introduced her this chapter.)

4\. Edolas won't appear in the fic as I see it now. Mystogan will...

I can give power ratings on the characters. Three kind actuality. The first is based on the sclae of 1-10 with each number representing a level. Second: the average power of an S-class is given as 100 and thus given the others. Final: E,D,C,B,A,S,SS... system with three subcategory (-, , +). If you want to see please say so in a review.


	6. Witcher

**An: First allow me to wish all of you Merry Christmas (even if a bit late) and Happy New Year!**

**An2: The Witcher franchise (or any part of it) belongs to those who made them. Andrzej Sapkowski for the books and characters and CD Projeck Red for the games. I can only claim my original content (OCs, weapons, storyline). I don't make money from writing this story (or any other for that matter).**

**An3: I will make some changes to the timeline, but it won't be that important as of now. (I just fiond it strange that there are mages more than three hundred years old when humans arrived on the continent only about five hundred years ago.**

**An4: Harry won't be godlike. This is the witcher universe. There will be very few if any character deserving called 'godlike'. (Okay one will be featured for sure, but it won't be Harry!) I will try to make Harry powerful but not overly so. He will be a serious player, but there will be others as well.**

**An5: Next I will update Star Wars Legends: The beginning. If I have any luck it will be out before New Year!**

**1\. chapter**

_The choice he made_

1261

He ran, he ran as fast as his legs allowed. He couldn't believe what happened. Oh, he knew that the world wasn't all sunshine and that shit. Not, even if the bards wanted to sing it in their ballads. He was fourteen, not six year old boy who wanted to be a knight in shinning armor. He knew life wasn't easy or fair, but for what it worth they had a peaceful one. Some monsters here and there, mostly downers, a few ghouls and so on. A few troublesome diseases, but nothing a druid, a sorceress and a healer couldn't cure. And now he ran because his village, his home burned.

He was the son of that sorceress, Lilian Evaine: Harry , he was a bastard really, no one knew who his father was save for his mother, though some of the rumours around the village said that even she herself didn't know it for sure. Of course the mayor put an end to these rumours. No village, even towns couldn't afford to lose a mage of his mother's abilities. And Lilian Evaine didn't want to speak about his past lovers, her son's father included.

Even if he didn't had the potential to become a mage, at least nowhere near the level of his mother, he had a very good and promising life. He had a loving mother, even if she sometimes had trouble showing it and sometimes showed too much love to her son. He learned under her mother, the village's healer, old Magdanela and Catnip, the druid in the forest nearby, which meant that he could be considered one of the most learned man in the shire. He didn't need to do work at the fields as most of the children, but in a little garden behind their house and helped the three healer with ingredients and preparation of their potions and salves. He wanted to make his mother proud even if he couldn't follow in her footsteps.

He was out the house, and usually he did in his free time he strolled in the woods. After two or three hours later he noticed the smoke in the sky. It came from the village's direction... He ran to their house, which was at the edge of the village just to see it burning, along with all the others. There were at least a dozen of man with a wide range of weapons in hand, forming a half circle in front of his home. In front of them stood a tall man in fine clothes under an equally fine armor. The flames illuminated his sharp features, his long black hair and gray eyes sat in a handsome face. Well, it could be called a handsome face if it wasn't in a mocking grin as if burning down a village meant nothing to him. Half of him wanted to ran, away from the danger. The other half wanted to stay, to help to whoever could be still saved. A crack from a breaking stick draw his attention from the group at his house. Twisting his head at the sound he saw on of these bandits only about forty feet away. He was big, round man with little, evil eyes staring right at him. Harry didn't wait for him. He turned around and dashed back into the forest with the man on his heels.

After running nearly for a quarter of a hour he stopped. He was sure that the man who came after him couldn't keep up. The adrenaline level inside his body lessened and his weariness made itself be known. He looked around. He knew that he crossed the border between the village and the Forest, where the dryads dwell. While he was there a few times in the past, never once did he do so without permission from one of the dryads. He hoped that they won't be angry at him for spending his night in their territory. Numerous men had been killed for far less after all. Grabbing a stick laying on the ground he sat at the root of the old oak tree next to him.

The early morning had found him up and thinking where could he be. A sudden crack drew his attention to the other end of the clearing. There was a full-grown man with his horse. And their eyes were on him. Harry was on his feet in an instant.

The man was tall with board shoulders. He had a dark brown leather vest and trouser of similar color with a black riding-boots on his feet. The man was a mutant he could tell at first glance. Snow white hair and golden cat eyes. The two swords on his back and the silver medallion on a simple necklace forming a snarling head of a wolf made it easy for Harry to know what was in front of him. A witcher. One of those rare mutants, who first were made by wizards for one thing: hunting monsters.

Harry didn't know much about them aside what everyone already did. They were professional monster hunters. He never seen one in real life and truthfully was happy with that. It meant that there wasn't a monster which would require the village to hire one to take care of it.

The white haired man held his hand up with palm pointing out, a sign of friendliness (or rather non-hostility) and stepped forward with a reassuring smile. There was a twang and an arrow stuck the nearest tree near the man who grabbed of the handle of his sword in a flash.

"Don't step closer to that child, Gwynbleidd!" came the soft voice from the right of Harry. Glancing there he could feel his body relax. There, near to an older oak stood Moréen, the dryad in her forest green and earth brown dress. Her little, elf like body was also green from her little pointy ears under her braided hair to her dainty toes "This child is under the protection of the forest!"

Which of course literally meant: under the protection of the dryads. The witcher nodded as he let go of his sword.

"Greetings, lady of the forest. I did not want to intrude into your territory, but I'm afraid in the fog I lost my way. I wanted to reach the village of Zvaere. Maybe you can point me in the right direction?" he asked calmly in his deep voice.

"We can. This child is also from there. But I have to warm you: the village was attacked not a day ago." Moréen slowly walked to stand beside Harry who hugged the dryad to him, not so secretly enjoying feeling the ample bosom of the nymph squashing to his chest. He knew how lucky he was: any other man would be dead by touching a dryad when she didn't allow it.

"I said it before, Moréen, I am not a child!" Harry said with a playful scowl.

"In the eyes of us you are until you live at least quarter of an oak life." Moréen said with a little smirk causing Harry to pout at her.

"My apologies but can we go to the village." asked the man tossing Harry back to real-life.

"Let's go." Moréen nodded in consent as she took the lead.

"So, you are from the village, boy? Can you tell me about it?" asked the man.

"Yeah, but I would like to know your name first, master witcher." he replied making the witcher eyes to light up amusement.

"Geralt of Rivia." he said.

"Harry Evaine of Zvaere. Well meet, master Geralt." Harry shook the witcher's extended hand.

"I have to say that I agree with Harry here, Lady Moréen. He is nearly a full-man grown! He is of... what? Fifteen-sixteen year? Hardly what I would call a child." Geralt said to Moréen who walked in front of them in total silence.

"I'm only fourteen, master Geralt." Harry replied in place of the nymph "And from their point of view you have to agree..."

"I suppose I can." Geralt admitted, while his mind deciphered the new information.

"I heard that the mayor wanted to get a more experienced person to deal with the monster which caused problem on the river. Would that be the reason to visit our humble village, master Geralt?" Harry asked.

"Indeed. It was nearby so I decided to accept the job." Geralt said.

"So you wouldn't if it was out the way?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We aren't paladins, boy..." Geralt said with a grin. It wasn't a happy one.

"I know that." Harry said defensively "I know that you take payment for those monsters you kill. You have to live from something after all... I can't fault you for that. I just wanted to know if the distance is something that you always consider when signing up for a job."

"We will arrive shortly." Moréen announced cutting off Geralt's reply.

The village seemed a bit better condition than what Harry would except after the night before. None of the houses burned fully down, even if two-thirds of them were damaged by fire. The bandits obviously focused on two house: the one where Harry and Lily called home and the mayor's. It was clear why they did so: these two were the best in the village and the value of the loot in them would be even bigger than the other houses put together. Harry wanted to run into their house, but Geralt stopped him.

"Stay put. There isn't anyone inside and if you want me to look for clues to who attacked I need you to hold still."

"What do you see, Gwynbleidd?" asked Moréen looking around with narrowed eyes.

"Whoever attacked wasn't a simple bandit." Geralt said "Those, if I'm not mistaken, seems to be the footprint of a Nilfgaardian cavalry boot. Those cost at least two and half hundred orens, which is more than what I would have got for getting rid of the monster in the swamp."

"Yeah, the leader seemed like a noble, but I thought that he killed a knight and donned his robe." Harry injected.

"That's a possibility." Geralt agreed "Could you describe him?"

"Hmm, tall, black haired, with gray eyes." Harry listed quickly, thinking back to the night before. "He had a black horse and a one and half handed sword..."

"Anything else? Maybe he had an unusual feature or something like that..." Geralt said not looking at the young man behind him, rather still inspecting the ground around the house.

"Yeah now that you mention it... He had white teeth, only my mother and mine are that white in the entire village, hell even the nobles who traveled through Zvaere, didn't have teeth like that!" Harry frowned remembering that man, who took his home from him.

"Your mother is a sorceress, isn't she Harry?" asked Geralt placing the next part of the puzzle to it's place.

"Yes, Lilian Evaine." Haryy replied.

"Then we can conclude, that those weren't bandits, but a knight and his group." Geralt said, sighing heavily "You can go to your house Harry. I will search the village, maybe I can find something as well."

Harry run to the house with Moréen following him like a shadow. It was empty just as Geralt said it would be. Every table was turned up, precious books lay on the ground disregarded. Going down to the laboratory Harry could see that there was an explosion in there destroying nearly everything in the room.

As he didn't found her mother he decided to find Geralt. He found him near to the inn, the Burrow. The way was littered with bodies of men and women, even some as young as him.

"Empty?" he asked Geralt who sat at the door of the inn.

"Empty."

"Can we gather them and bury them?" Harry asked the witcher who shook his head.

"I will help you gather them, but I won't help with digging up a hole for each." he answered.

"Please! I can't just let them lay here, out in the open!" Harry cried out desperately. Geralt looked at him for a long, very long minute, then after sighing aloud nodded relucantly.

"Thank you master Grealt. I will repay you somehow." Harry said sincerely.

"Let's start or we won't finish before sundown." the witcher growled.

They started to lay the bodies next to each other behind the inn. Harry flinched seeing some more familiar face and even nearly puked seeing Grodd, the dwarf and Edwin, the hunter.

"You knew them?" asked Geralt stepping next to him.

"Yes, Grodd here taught me how to fight, he was a mercenary once." he explained, looking at the dwarf who had his head separated from his torso "Edwin was a hunter and my mother's lover."

"Your father?" Geralt asked glancing at the man laying in front of him. Edwin had short brown hair and was reasonably muscled and handsome. He was gutted like a fish.

"Never meet him." Harry replied softly "Never heard his name, or anything related to him. Mom never liked to speak about him."

"I see." Geralt said "They are the last ones."

Thirty-four bodies, twenty men, eleven women and three younger than eighteen, though few would care about that. They were mostly humans, only two elfs and Grodd were of other races. Harry puked seeing that some of the women were violated and even a few men had the sign of not finding an easy death.

"Let's bury them." Geralt softly said "Where can we find a spade?"

"No need for that Gwynbleidd." said Moréen, who was until now silent, laying a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder "I will do the work."

Abruptly the air itself filled with magical energy. Moréen said something, which Harry couldn't hear and the earth changed in front of bodies. Thirty-four grave, one after another appeared as the ground was split open by Moréen's magic.

"We would be digging 'til midnight, if not for you, Lady Moréen." Geralt said.

"True. Thank you for this." Harry agreed and sent a small smile towards the dryad.

"Think nothing of it Harry." she replied, favouring him with a small smile "Now you have to decide what you want to do."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry, even when he knew what the dryad meant.

"Don't take me for a fool Harry. I like you, but I won't let you to do so." Moréen said back with a little frown marring her beautiful face.

"I-I apologies Moréen. I didn't wanted to hurt you or your pride, never did, never will." Harry said "But I don't know what could I do apart of waiting the villagers to return and hoping for the best."

"I wouldn't wait for them. There were at least two dozen who left the village and two carts did as well. It's quite possible that most where dragged off to sell them into slavery." Geralt cautioned him "Or they have gone into the groves, but they won't return for two-three days at the earliest."

"And even if they did I wasn't the most loved man in the village." Harry replied back "I may be able to become Catnip's apprentice, but the life of a druid isn't something I wish upon myself."

"You could come with me and become a witcher." Geralt offered suddenly.

"Really?" Harry asked surprised at the sudden change of heart. Don't misundestand him, Geralt was pretty helpful, but nowhere near to the point of offering, what in Harry's mind was, a very generous offer of apprenticeship under Geralt.

"You can also live with us, Harry." Moréen also offered in her soft voice.

"I think you should also tell him what a life like that means, Lady Moréen." Geralt said his voice gaining an edge "And why you do offer him this."

"Me and my sisters like Harry." Moréen said, but her voice also came with an edge looking at the witcher "Don't believe I don't know the reason behind your offer, Gwynbleidd.

"Hah, as if your offer would be anymore purer than mine." Geralt riposted

"Would someone explain me what in the blaze you two are bickering about?" Harry asked, flustered by the stand-off between the two.

"Gwynbleidd wants you to become a witcher because you have magic inside you." Moréen explained " He believes that you will be exceptionally powerful witcher."

"That's true." Geralt admitted "And I would have said so because I only take you to my home if you will answers my questions and hear the full offer."

"I see." Harry said "It's nearly noon. We shall dine and after that you can explain it wholesome to me."

After dinner which was spent in Harry's house, Geralt, Moréen and Harry stayed around the table. After a minute of silence Geralt spoke up.

"What Lady Moréen said is true, at least part of it. You have magic inside you and ,if you will become a witcher, would be a great addition to our School. But there are several... risks. I won't lie to you. The Trials are brutal, at best four students from ten survive." he said with absolute honestly "And I have to ask if your mother did anything for your body."

"She didn't. I heard her once telling it Catnip, but he didn't believed her so she allowed him to examine me." Harry answered "I was only given special elixirs and teas, nothing to really affect my body."

"At least not how a mutagen would do it." Geralt said, deep in thoughts "Your mother seems to made sure that you are at peak human condition for your age, but nothing magical. That's good, you can receive the mutagens."

"And the mutations will render you sterile." Moréen said with disgust "You won't be able to father a child."

"Which would also render you useless to the dryads." Geralt said with a hard voice, but laced with an emotion Harry couldn't place... sadness? Regret? "If you go with them you will be nothing more than a breeding stallion, one who can't go out of the forest."

"That's-that's not true!" Moréen cried out, but Geralt face stopped her "Or at least not entirely." she admitted."I like you Harry, really like you. I didn't feel like that in my entire life." she looked away embarrassed. Geralt sighed again.

"Lady Moréen, can I tell you something?"

"Of course Gwynbleidd." replied the dryad.

"Do you swear not to tell anyone, but your fellow dryads:" Geralt asked.

"Who would I tell? There are only three people aside from you that we speak: Harry, Lilian, Harry's mother and Catnip the druid." Moréen answered.

"Please don't tell them either, nor you Harry." Geralt said softly.

"I swear, Geralt ." Harry said.

"I swear." Moréen said at last.

"As you may know our numbers are declining since years beyond even my lifetime." Geralt said "One reason for this is that we didn't have one who could conduct the Trials and the mutations. We had everything: mutagens, laboratory, equipments... But we didn't had a mage. Now after years, our leader Vesemir" Geralt said that name with obvious respect "found one of his old friend, a druid who agreed to help us. This will be the first year in nearly a quarter century that our home will receive students."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Moréen asked worriedly. Geralt couldn't help a humorless chuckle.

"Yes, it will be." he agreed "But we, or more accurately the druid, master Myrdinn studied ancient tomes and our records for three years now. And master Myrdinn is obviously a very wise and knowledgeable person. For all intent it won't be anymore dangerous than my own set of Trials."

"You said that was one of the reasons. What is the other?" Harry asked curiously.

"Just as Moréen said: all witcher is sterile. None of us can produce seed which would grow." Geralt replied.

"How poetic of you Gwynbleidd." Moréen said with an amused smile, but the smile didn't reach her eyes...

"Sorry, it seems I spent to many time with that whoremonger Dandelion." Geralt replied embarrassed a bit "But here comes the main point of this. Do either one of you know why we are the way we are?"

The two seemed to think it over. Why would the witcher become sterile if they were normal people before? Sure, maybe all of them were sterile but the chance of that was somewhere very near to zero.

"Your mutation." Harry said at last "That's the only thing that can explain it."

"Yes, that right. Now, a harder question. Which part do this to us?" Geralt asked calmly. Seeing the puzzled expression of Harry, he answered his own question. Moréen seemed uninterested at first, but both human knew that she follow the conservation closely. "The magic. None of the witcher had magic before the mutations or so scarce talent that it was little to no use. But now..." he lifted his arm and it flashed for a moment. Golden sparks flared out his palms and the winds picked up inside the room. It intensity grow to another level and the books in the living room flew to the other side, the two chairs fell over. Then Geralt ceased the flow of magic.

"Don't say this lie Gwynbleidd!" Moréen didn't seem to believe the witcher "My mother had magic and she clearly bore me. Myself can use it as well and you could see what I did before..."

"That's true." Geralt nodded "But for humans magic has an adverse effect on our ability to reproduce. Very few among the natural users of magic, both sorcerers and sorceresses, are capable to that simple feat for our race. Those who were granted this ability from outside source, the mutations, will lose it completely. No witcher going under those mutations could hope to have a child. But Harry here already has the potential to use magic..." Geralt finished his tale.

"Which would mean that the mutation that allows you to use magic won't be needed." Harry said.

"And thus Harry could have children." Moréen continued with relieved voice.

"Yes, that's what I hope for." Geralt said, before focusing solely only Harry instead of both of them "I will tell you now: what I just said is only speculation, no one tried this before. Even if you don't undergo that mutation there is a chance that the others would still render you sterile."

"I see." Harry said, deep in thoughts. After a moment or two he stood up "Whatever I choose I will have to leave this place so while I decide I will go and collect whatever I will need."

"A sensible idea." Geralt agreed.

Harry started to search the house for anything that he would need. He started with the easiest things: some clothes from his wardrobe and his bow which Edwin gave him on his thirteen nameday. He would never be a master archer but could use it well enough. Next came the hidden stock under the floorboards. There were fifty orens, a case with six vials of potion and description with it and a map. Then he wanted to take some of the books with himself. Starting in his mother bedroom after choosing a few which seemed helpful enough, he discovered a little booklet wrapped in brown leather. Harry cautiously opened it. It was the diary of his mother! He didn't knew she had one.

Moréen and Geralt had waited him in front of the house. Both of them looked calm on the outside, but their eyes told him a different story. Moréen he could understand, but Geralt? Why would the witcher be anxious?

"I decided to go with Geralt, Moréen." Harry said with a sad smile "I'm sorry but I want to see the world and I want to find my mother... and my father if I can."

"I have known you would choose that." she replied in a sad voice "You and your wanderlust. But perhaps that's why me and my sisters like you that much. If-if you could promise me something?"

"Anything." Harry answered immediately.

"When you become a witcher... Would you visit us?" she said embarrassed, not looking at him. So it came a real surprise to her when Harry tightly hugged her.

"Of course I will. And if you want it" there he looked deep in her eyes "I will mate with you." Moréen seemed shocked, while Geralt hide his amused smile behind his hand.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Moréen said with a smile, this one reaching her eyes "I will wait for you Harry." with that the dryad kissed the young boy who after a moment started kissing back. It was a soft, gentle union between them. It was so loving and tender moment that Geralt turned his back toward them. He couldn't believe he was embarrassed by this. He seen Dandelion screwing whore after whore before without batting an eye!

While the witcher had his inner turmoil, the two had lean away from each other with small smiles tugging on their lips. Moréen pecked Harry on his lips before turning on her lips and silently run into the woods on her light feet. There she looked back at Harry once again and lifted her in farewell. In the next moment she disappeared like the wind. Free and untamed.

"We can start our journey Geralt." Harry said to the witcher.

"Alright. Then get your horse and let's get out of here!" the witcher replied "And whip off that stupid grin from your face."

"You can be a real jerk. Did you know that?"

"You didn't bring him back here?" asked one of her sister, Nae.

"No I let him choose his destiny." Moréen replied.

For a minute neither spoke, but enjoyed the feel of the forest around them. The peaceful silence was only broken by the sound of water hitting rock in the near creek and the song of birds. It was perfect for them.

"Will he come back?" Nae asked.

"You know him as well as I do. He will." Moréen replied but her emotions betrayed her.

"Oh, there is something there! Tell me! Please!" Nae was very energetic.

"He promised to mate with me." Moréen confessed flustered at little grin appearing on her sister's face. "And we kissed..."

"Truly? How was it?" Nae asked curiously. It was rare for a dryad to kiss someone. Now it was even more rare as they had less and less breeder after years and years.

"It was... I don't know how to describe it." Moréen confessed "It was... it felt right. I found peace there...

"In Harry's arms. That's great. I'm happy for you sister." Nae told her sincerely.

"Is it alright that I don't think of him as only a... breeder?" Moréen asked, afraid of the answer "He is so different from other men."

"He is." Nae nodded, along with other dryads who stood nearby "And it's perfectly alright to think about him. But you have to promise one thing."

"Yes?" Moréen asked with a tilt of the head.

"You will have to allow your sister to mate with him as well." Nae said with a grin. Moréen only nodded, embarrassed at the conservations and giggles around her.

Suddenly the forest cried out in alarm and the dryad lost their cheerfulness. Men arrived at the edge of the forest with axes and saws. In the place of a group of little, cheerful nymphs stood warriors, who will defend their home. Nae and Moréen took their bow together.

"Let's go sister."

"Let's sister." Noréen replied. For now she had to forget about her _minne_.

_Elder Speech:_

_In the most simple way to describe it would be saying that it is the elven language. It is one of the oldest language still in use._

_Words:_

_\- evaine: delivered from elaine which means fair or beautiful_

_\- Gwynbleidd: White Wolf. The name the dryads gave to Geralt._

_\- Zvaere: swear (to take an oath)_


	7. The Second Primarch -1

**An1: Sorry for the long hiatus! I don't know how many of you will read this I finished the second chapter of Age of Heralds (it is currently edited) and third way down on the rewrite with my Star Wars/Hp fic. If everything work out I can publish that one next week. **

**An2: This isn't canon so those who don't like Au stories should stay away from this.**

**The Second Son**

_Awakenning_

When he woke up he didn't know where he was. He searched his mind, searched for the answers he needed. Who was he? What happened with him? What was his purpose? He had to do something, something important. Someone entrusted him with a quest. A mission. But what was it?

Then he remembered. How he arrived on a planet, Avalon, with thick, dark forests and high castles. How he was found by one of the lord, the Stag, who raised as his own son and named him Aries.

He matured faster than anyone they had ever known. Whatever he learned he was better than any other, even the Stag's trueborn son Gwaine who himself was a genius. Be it his prowess in fight, tactics, strategies he was without equal. Soon young Aries was their champion, their protector, their guardian. He was the one who stood against the beasts of the forests, the raiders and the armies of the other lords.

But Avalona's greatest enemy were the wraiths of the night. They came with the dark, sleek forms in black armor killing the fortunate and take the others. What happened to those none knew, but all guessed that death was a better fate than being a prisoner of them.

The Stag always stood against them, yet couldn't save his people. The soldiers fought valiantly, but against those monsters their courage was not enough. One night, when they were still young Aries and Gwaine joined the defenders without the Stag knowing.

Gwaine was better than anyone in the kingdom at fighting striking down his enemies with sure stabs from his longsword. He killed more than a dozen of the wraiths before one of them attacked him. While Gwaine was more than good, the wraith was faster and older. But before the killing blow could be delivered to the young man Aries joined the fight.

Gwaine was a talent appearing only once in a lifetime. Despite of this Aries was better at anything they did. Aries had only passed his teenage years yet stood taller than anyone. He defeated the champions of the kingdom one after another. When he saw his best friend, maybe his only friend in danger he moved between them. The wraith didn't hesitated. In his arrogance he thought the young man couldn't be harder opponent than the one before. The wraith only managed to scratch Aries's armor before the young titan's sword beheaded him.

After that day the wraiths started to stay away of the Stag's dominion. Under Aries and Gwaine's command the soldiers and knights brought an era of peace to their lands, not seen in living memory. That was when the Dragonknights of the kingdom asked the two to join them.

As Avalon had a great number of beasts, but none were as feared or honored as the dragons. These great reptilian beast laid waste to many towns and villages, killing people and livestock. Yet, a few esceptional knights were able to tame these beasts and ride them into battles.

With their lord's leave they joined, both able to gain one dragon's trust and partnership. But when Aries returned from the mountains on gthe back of his dragon the Order was in surprised awe. For he rode the legendary Ancalagon the Black, said to be the greatest dragon to ever lived. Not even the oldest of the old remembered a time when Ancalagon wasn't already a legend. Some said that he was the son of the god Indraugnir himself. With that Aries got his second name Draugnir as only someone with Indraugnir blessing or blood could ride the Great Dragon.

The Stag was content, glad that he could leave his kingdom in capable hands. He was old when Gwaine was born and his wife died just after naming their son. He was ready to meet her in the after life.

After Lord Janus, his father in all but blood died, he was entrusted with the well being of his land and all other. He vowed to archive the old lord dream. He will stop the needless bloodshed that plagued the world. Every lord fought for the smallest piece of land, leaving it in a near constant war.

Under his command the armies of the late Lord Stag conquered many minor kingdoms, similar that of the Stag's. A few even shared his dream and gladly joined as their allies. Soon after his numerous win other lesser lords started to send a courier to parley with the Pride of the Stag. He was glad to welcome them with open arm.

But others didn't see the wisdom in bending to the knee. United under the most powerful lord, they marched against them. The battle was one like the planet haven't seen in ages. Thousands upon thousands fought on either side. But none could stand against him, none could best him. While his plan was far better than the Lord Drake, he was better than anyone, they were severely outnumbered as the Drake was the greatest lord in the lands and many joined him. All hope for the Stag's dream seemed lost.

That was when he unleashed his greatest and most dreaded weapon: his sorcery. From a young age he could make things happens, levitate a horse, snap a man's neck... And his powers had grown with him, they still did even after maturing fully. Now, he brought the full might of it upon his foes. Earth shattered, the heavens trembled, men and women fallen in an instant. And from certain defeat it transformed into certain victory.

All knew, none more so than Lord Drake. He was a proud man, but rightly so. He was a great warlord just as his ancestors. And as it stood he would never yield. He darted forward, ready to meet the Pride of the Stag in simple combat. His only hope for victory to kill the younger man.

He was meet with the eager Aries. For all his experience and talent the lord was no match for the young hero. They clashed, but Aries always thrown him back. Three times was Lord Drake asked to surrender and three times he refused. Seeing no other way Aries attacked the older man with such ferocity that his defense was broken. With a move so fast, none could follow he stabbed him through his stomach.

As Lord Drake's army surrendered, Aries removed his helmet, showing his handsome face. Lord Drake could feel the mere presence of his foe in their dual, but now seeing the long back hair and brilliant emerald eyes with more wisdom than any greybeards he seen in his life he finally understood. This being in front of him was beyond him, beyond any mere human to truly comprehend. With his last breath he grabbed his sword and held it out for Aries in surrender.

After he united Avalon, for there was only one known continent, Albion to conquer with a few islands here and there, Aries started to govern it with the help of his most trusted confidant Gwaine. The beasts and mutants in the forest were still a threat, even if the newly organized regiments defending the people of his world with courage and honor.

Then they searched for the second continent only known by legends and songs. It was across the globe, a huge piece of land nearly as large as Albion itself. It had a great mountain range the Dragonspine Mountains with peaks reaching the sky, its caves filled with the largest population of dragons on the planet.

So Aries made an Order for the best of his warriors, experienced veterans from the war and young talents, all bonded to a dragon. Aries could only entrust leading them to one person: Gwaine. He was second only to him and everyone knew it. Only he could command them as many were proud and would follow only Aries or Gwaine. This Order would them take residence at the northest and greatest peak of the Dragonspine Mountains, building the great fortress of White Spire.

Aries would gladly lead this Order, but governing the planet even with the Grand Council was a monumental task, leaving him with no time to speak of. Without the fighting it was discovered that some fragments of ancient technology remained in the vaults of various lords. Nothing that would change their lives overnight, but they could build on it under Aries guidance. With this a new and bright age seemed in the future of Avalon. But Aries with his power felt that this wasn't his destiny. And then He came.

The Emperor of Mankind, his father. Some of his brothers fought the Emperor upon meeting him. Aries did not. He understood, looking beneath the physical plane, that while he was above other humans, the Emperor was also above him just as much. He was unlike anything he ever seen. A bright star in the warp, so bright he felt as if he would go blind by looking into it too much, even as it was impossible. He swore fealty to the Emperor himself and Mankind. The Emperor was most pleased by meeting another of his sons and what he accomplished while away from him.

The Emperor came with shocking news. He came from Terra, the mystical homeworld of their race, to unite the galaxy under his rule. Aries may have laughed at the idea if somebody else said it. Coming from the Emperor he couldn't help but believe that he could do it.

Thus, Aries joined the Great Crusade and the Second Legion, his legion, his sons. Many from his Order and other hopefuls joined the legion boasting it's number nearly to the double of when it left Terra. Gwaine joined and with his skill became one of the most powerful warrior within the legion. He was asked to lead the primarch's guard, the Dragonknights.

But there were also regiments of regular humans which happily followed him to the stars. Tens of thousands joined them on their crusade in reclaiming the galaxy for humanity. No army able to withstand the legions and imperial army. The Second Legion was led to numerous victory which earned them much fame and the name of Emerald Dragons.

Aries was glad to be able to meet others like him. While he was beloved by his people and a few he could call friend as well he knew that he was different from them. He knew it was unintentional on either part, but there was a distance between him and them.

He was two heads taller than the tallest knights. His body was stronger and faster than others'. He didn't received any wounds in a decade but when he was younger he healed from wound fatal for anyone else. He could easily understand and learn everything a greybeard knew in a year.

But what truly set him apart was something he didn't notice until he started to rule Avalon. One day he looked in a mirror while Gwaine stood beside him reporting news of another successful strike against the beasts of the forest. There was only two year difference in their age, yet looking in the mirror everyone would sworn that Gwaine was a decade older than him. Aries face looked as someone's from his late twenties early thirties. He haven't aged since the unification of Avalon.

The Emperor only found two of his sons by the time he discovered Aries. He was eager to see them. He hoped that he finally found those who could understand him. In a way he did, thought his brothers were much different both from him and from each other, yet alike. Just as Aries they were awe inspiring figures of legends.

Horus Lupercal was the first the Emperor found and it showed. Not only that he had a somewhat special place among even the Primarch, but the Emperor teachings seemed to be deeply absorbed by him. He was calm and collected, yet an impressive warrior and brilliant tactician. His charisma and talent in strategy seemed second only to the Emperor. and thus served as his Second-in-command.

Leman Russ came from the feral world of Fenris. The Wolf King was every bit of the wild barbarian warrior king he looked like. He was quick to howl either in joy or anger. He sometimes forgot slights as soon as it happened, but remembered others even decades later as if it happened just the day before. Yet none could deny his or his sons' ability as warriors. The Vlka Fenryka as they called themselves was a fearsome enemy to anyone to have.

One by one the Primarchs has been found and just the first two all were different from each other. Aries tried to approach all of them, to see them as the brothers they were. With Horus and Russ it was easy. Horus welcomed him with open arms, genuinely happy to meet him, which he reciprocated. Russ was quick to bond with him after a few sparring session, even if he was somewhat troubled by his use of sorcery.

Some of the Primarchs wanted to keep their distance like Rogal Dorn while other were too different in soul for Aries to truly bond with even if he had a rather warm relationship with all of them, similar to Horus. Yet there were three cases where it was very different for several reasons.

Vulkan, the Primarch of the eighteen legion, the Salamanders. While he was an intimidating figure Aries soon found out that his brother might be the most caring among them for the well-being of the citizens of the Imperium.

Sanguinius, the Angel was also someone Aries looked up, yet for a different reason. The Angel wasn't only an awe inspiring figure, but noble and pure. He was a symbol of what humanity could reach, even to the Primarchs.

Magnus the Red was the only other Primarch who could connect to the Astral Plane by his own will. It should have formed a special bond between them. It happened, yet not in the form either of them wanted. The Emperor warned them against using their powers without caution. Aries felt that it was well founded. He was weaker than his father or even Magnus, yet could easily bend several dozen battle hardened men's will to his own. It was a power that frightened him.

Magnus was stronger and more knowledgeable than him. At first he tried to teach his brother, but after a few months it became clear that Aries used far greater restrain on himself than Magnus. After a decade their clash of ideals on how someone should learn about the Immaterium escalated into a full-blown argument. After that their relationship changed and Magnus warm advice lost it warmth and more and more of the Crimson King's arrogance was revealed in them.

After the Ullanor Crusade the Emperor summoned him and the Primarch of the Eleventh, Vlad. The two had been given an important mission: destroy an enemy that could destroy Mankind. The two brothers were confused. After the Ullanor Crusade most of the galaxy was under the command of the Emperor. The Emperor explained them that what he sensed was in the future. An alien race, composed of trillions upon trillions being that was part of the whole. A hive which consumed what was in it's path. It needed to be destroyed in infancy or they could become something mankind wasn't ready to face.

The two brothers mustered their legions and other forces for their cause before they started their journey. When they went to Avalon to start their crusade a warp storm enclosed them. Aries didn't fully know what happened there, his memory of that time was foggy at best.

He remembered living a life of a normal human, well as normal as he could get. He as Harry Potter, was a proto-psyker in the dawn of the second millenium. The "wizards and witches" of that time were quite interesting, even if sometimes shamefully coward or stupid. But he was awed by the freedom, the possibilities of that era. It was foreign for him, Aries Cernunnos even if his mortal self never found out who he was in reality. He never know freedom, only duty. Even in that age he had his duty, but after he had done it... He finally experienced peace. He always fought, for his father, for Mankind, for his friends. But now, the next several decades he lived like any other man. He died in bed, surrounded by family and friends.

And now he woke in a chamber, very similar in both style and size to his personal chamber on his home world or flagship the Emperor's Will. He sat up cautiously, inspecting the medical equipment on the other side of the bed. It was the same he saw the Legion's apothecary use. He didn't know where he was, who else, what else could be there with him, though from the equipment and the fact that he wasn't restrained he guessed he was in the care of his legion. He was bare-chested, with only a dark trousers on his giant form. He tried his movements, arms, legs, fingers, neck all seemed to be in perfect condition. He easily stood up and started searching the desk near his bed to get all the information he desperately needed.

But before he could find anything relevant to his questions the doors of the chamber were opened and a group of astartes came inside just to halt in shock seeing the Primarch on his feet. They wore the color of his legion: emerald green with raven black. Four of them were members of his honour guard, three of the apothecary, one being the chief of it and a captain from the first company. His black hair was closely cropped for easy maintance, green eyes a shade paler than his own looking in awe at his form. Even among these superhumans, champions of humanity he would be a giant. Their presence, while awe inspiring for mere mortal was but the fraction of his. Then, as one the group knelled before him.

"My lord, a honor to finally be able to speak with you." the first man who entered, the captain, spoke in awe filled voice.

"Stand when you speak with me." Aries ordered in a firm tone. Not even regular human soldiers were required to kneel before him. Why would his sons do so then?

At once the giants stood, their proud face full of emotions: awe, happiness at being in the presence of their primarch.

"I would guess that you are member of my legion. Is that correct?" he asked more gently this time around. They nodded at this "I see that you are the captain of the first company, yet I don't remember ever seeing you..."

"Yes, my lord." the leader stepped forward stoicaly "I'm Grandmaster Cullen..."

"Grandmaster?" he asked surprised, as the the Grandmaster was the leader of the elite Deathguard company his personal praetorians, while the First captain served as the Legion Master as well and those two ranks were separate "How long was I away? What happened to the legion?"

"Avalon was engulfed in a warp storm, my lord." the legion master explained to which Aries nodded. He was there when it happened he was the one who along with many of the legion's psykers put up a psychic ward to defend their world " It not only disposed us in time but place as well. We are in the Eastern fringe of the galaxy in the year 230.M39."

"And the legion?" he asked, fearing for his men, he wasn't there to lead them for nearly nine thousand years!"What happened with Zael and Gwaine?"

"Lord Gwaine had died in a crusade against an ork Waaagh in 789.M36. Lord Zael is with us... in a sense." Cullen answered hesitantly.

"What do you mean by that?" Areis asked dreading the answer.

"He was... his body was too damaged my lord to save. He is in a dreadnaught now." Cullen said with respect to the first master of the legion.

"And the Imperium? What happened in it?" he asked, concentrating on the matter at hand. His father spoke of a danger threatening the Imperium and nine millenia passed on. Could it be that the Imperium was no more?

The astartes in front of him looked at each other, before Cullen started on explaining the Imperium current state for his primarch. In a way he was right with that question.

The Imperium was in ruin. The countless battle and death was meaningless. All the work of his and his brothers was destroyed, perhaps beyond hope. The prosperity they all imagianed on humanity was nowhere. The Imperium stood in one place if not even walking backwards in every aspect of civilization but religion. Truly how could his brothers let this happen to their father's dream? His father, who was nothing more than a rotting corpse in his throne, was worshiped by the masses. He, who once burned entire planets for simply being too devote in their religious belief was now worshiped as a god. He, who once humiliated his son Lorgar and his entire legion for this very reason... For mankind to be this far apart from the envisioned future. Now he had to fight, not just for his brothers but for the dream he shared with the other Primarchs. He hated this. He hated how his blood pumped at the thoughts of battles, how he loved the brotherhood forged in the flames of war, how his bloodlust spiked again. He hated war. Yet he was unmatched in it.

His sons were betrayed by their dearest friends. Mankind, which they bleed for, suffered for, died for turned their back on them. Their brothers, which who they fought with back-to-back did the same and now hunted them. For they had been deceived greatly and his scions paid for his mistake.

But not all was lost. While the Imperium became corrupt and decadent, their realm prospered. They had the might to fight back the Imperium, They had the will to do so. He will lead them on a final crusade. Because that was his duty. For both his father and the memory of his dream.

He will conquer the Imperium.


	8. The Second Primarch 2

**The Second Son**

_Of past, present and future_

Aries was alone in his chamber next to the room he awakened. He was in the palace of Atlantis, the White Spire. It was on the side of the largest peak of the Dragonspine Mountain, the nesting territoy of dragons in the ancient times. Nowadays only a few peaks south to the castle were used by the beasts. The castle was monumental, its greatest tower easily reaching out the clouds.

It wasn't only a castle for him, but the Fortress Monastery of the Emerald Dragons and the Dragonknights, the elite of the Legion. It was an impenetrable fort filled with ancient space weapons and large lance weapon systems to destroy any enemy warship.

He summoned a council to the meeting hall on the floor above his chambers. He had only a few hours before it and he had to gather his thoughts and all information available to him. While usually he had not possessed the thirst for every little detail like some of his brothers, now he needed every ounce of it to plan his next course of actions.

Yet, even as datapads, scrolls and tomes were placed before him by faithful servitors he couldn't help but ponder over the past. It may be because of the chamber being the exact same it was when he was the last time there. Everything was polished so it appeared as if only a day passed not nine thousand year.

They didn't know exactly what happened at the Horus Heresy but knew the Imperial account of what transpired in it. When the Second Legion first appeared in real space along with Avalon they reached out for the Imperium. Before long it became clear that the Imperium transformed itself into a theocratic empire with the Council of Terra ruling it in the name of the God-Emperor.

When Horus was appointed as warmaster at the end of the Ullanor Crusade Aries thought very little on it. Horus joined their father the earliest and had a rather close bond with every single one of them. Who could be an alternative to him?

There were a few name that came to his mind, but all fall short compared to the Primarch of the Luna Wolves. Aside those who he didn't even considered for one reason or another, a handful of Primarchs could have filled the role.

Rogal Dorn was a great tactician and strategist, but was cold and stoic to everyone even his own brothers and scions. Aries heard that his disposition towards regular guardsmen was neutral at best and impatient at worst.

Roboute Guilliman was just as much of a tactician and maybe even greater stategist than their brother. He was also less impatient than him. Yet, he was rigid in his ways. He wouldn't be flexible enough to accept his brothers more improviser style like Russ' or even Aries'.

The only one who could truly replace Horus as a warmaster was Sanguinius, but he wouldn't accepted it even if the offer was made. His angelic brother was too humble to place himself above his brothers and wouldn't be good at enforcing his decree as well.

What happened at the Horus Heresy was unclear from the official Imperial record. Aries was sure that the record was heavily edited at the best points and completely false on others. What was certain that Horus and Sanguinius died on Terra while Ferrus Manus died before that and the traitors retreated in the Eyes of Terror while the loyalist disappeared one by one, save Dorn who was slain in the end of the 32th millenum.

Without the Emperor something drastic had to be done to prevent any infighting. For that reason the remaining Primarchs divided their legions into several chapters each a thousand men strong. Officially it was an unanimous decision, but Aries doubted that Russ wouldn't protest it. But the concept of it was good, though it relied heavily on the chapters aiding each other.

After reading the last report on the table he stood up, knowing that he had only a few minutes before the meeting begone. His walk to the chamber above was short and filled with silence. The two Dragonknights who stood guard at the door of his chamber stepped in line behind him but made no move to engage in conservation. Usually Aries would have been happy to talk with his scions but he still deeply thought out plans after plans.

Taking a mental note to talk to his honour guards he stepped into the chamber the two guards following closely. The chamber was dominated by a large table with a projektor at the middle. The sides were decorated with tapestries and statues of notable figures. He regocnized both Gwaine and Zane near the end of the chamber one on either side with the legion banner hanged between them. It was a black with a green dragon head on it with a golden trim, more than six feet wide and nearly twice as long. He sat before it at the head of the table, his honour guards standing at attention on either side of the banner.

After a few minutes the chamber's door opened and with Cullen's leading them the most influental figures of the Realm of Avalon came. Along with servant and servitors carrying food and drink, tomes and scrolls. All bowed down before Aries who stood, welcoming them with a smile.

"Please friend, take a sit and let this council meeting start." after everyone took their place he turned to Cullen "Legion master please introduce the other members of the council."

"Of course, my lord." Cullen said "First we have Lady Elizabeth of House Navarra." he dibbed his towards the woman sitting across him. She appeared what commoners would refer 'middle-aged', though Aries suspected that she was well over a hundred years old maybe even two, appearing as she did only thanks to the rejuvenat treatments. She had brown hair cascading in soft waves, her skin sun-kissed. She wore what was a female officer uniform if only entirely white save the golden trims made out of the finest materials. Her face was carefully controlled, yet Aries could see a little amount of awe seeping through of it. Her grey eyes rested on him, analysing him even as she bowed. "She is the govenorn of Avalon and the Archon of the Senatorum."

"My lord, it's an honor to meet you." the lady demurely greeted him. Her voice was soft and melodical.

"The pleasure is all mine, mylady." Aries assured her "You are of House Navarra? Are you by any chance related to Admiral Titho Navarra?" Aries asked remembering one of his subordonites from the Great Crusade.

"Yes, he is my ancestor and founder of House Navarra." Lady Elizabeth replied with a hint of pride in her voice. Not without reason Titho was a genius navy officer who led his fleet to many victories.

"He was a good man just as he was a good officer. If you only half as good as governor as he was as an admiral then Avalon is in good hands." Aries stated.

"I will try to uphold my ancestor's ideal." Lady Elizabeth sent him a smile and smirk to someone else down the line. Aries wasn't the only one who noticed, but decided not to comment on it as nobody seemed surprised at it.

"Lady Elizabeth had done an examplery service in the decades as planetary governor." Cullen said. Elizabeth taking the praise with a gracious bow. "To my right is Commander Tiberius, commander of the Astra Militarum. Next to him is Admiral Felix, Lady Elizabeth's nephew and commander of the Astra Armada." The two men were nothing alike. Tiberius had an old, vethered face with a marred left cheek. Felix on the other hand looked the youngest in the room. His features were similar to his aunt's but wore a smirk even as keeen eyes roamed over the table.

Both men bowed to Aries, with a "An honor mylord." The primarch only nodded to them, carefully studying seemed experienced and stoic. Only time will tell if he was flexible enough in the warroom for Aries' taste. Felix was either arrogant due to his high rank despiete his youth or something happened between him and others. Aries could look past arrogance to a degree if a person's talent worth it.

"Allow me to introduce the next two council members." Elizabeth gestured to the two seat left to her "Lord Leto of House Armicus, the Head of Treasury and Master of Administratum and Lord Artimus, Head of the Merchant Guilds."

Leto was the second youngest of the group, but otherwise was opposite of Felix. He had shoulder length blond hair with hazel eyes. He bowed to the primarch with a small smile. Artimus on the other hand seemed guarded, courtious but guarded.

"Next we have..."

"**I will introduce myself."** the vox-caster made voice of the next man came in emotionless sound. The figure was clad in crimson robes with Mechadendrite floating around him. Aries knew that his body was more like a machine than a real human. **"Archmagos Maximus of the Chief Forge World of Rhodos, Magos Superior of the Realm's Council of the Adeptus Mechanicus."**

"May the Machine-God grant you knowledge." Aries greeted the Magos in the traditional Mechanicus way.

"**For the Omnissiah we fight."** the Archmagos quickly put behind his surprise at the ancient greeting coming from the Primarch **"Had you received training by our Adepta, Primarch Draugnir?"**

"Yes, though not as excessive as some of my brothers." Aries replied lightly, thinking of Vulkan or Ferrus Manus "From what I understand my knowledge is that of an Enginseer, maybe an Artisan."

"**How much time passed between your studies?"**

"I led my legion to battles on the Great Crusade and only had little time to study with Enginseer Dexeta. Maybe what could translate to a little over five years overseveral decades." he explained.

"**Most impressive."** Maximus was pleased at hearing that even if his metalic voice did little to show it **"It seems my exceptions are alredy exceded. " **

"How dare you!" a woman, two seat away from him, stood up and another in a female power armor on the other side seemed eager to do the same. "His holiness has nothing to prove to you!"

"**I have nothing to tell you, Divine Victoria III."**

"You.."

"Peace!" Aries said. For a moment his presence which he carefully controlled was out of its bound. All in the room fell silent as his presence shone with ethernal light for a moment. Even those who had no connection to the Warp could feel the power rolling off the Primarch. For those who had it was like a sun flickered up for a moment before it died out, letting a glimpse of his might shown to them "No need for violence. If anyone among this Council has grievance with each other we can spoke of them later."

"**Acceptable."**

"As you wish, your worship."

"Please finish the introduction Grand Master." Aries motioned to the others down the table "We will have much to discuss."

"By your command." Cullen replied "Next to Archmagos Maximus we have Lord Zaed representitive of the Navigator Houses." the blind man bowed to him and with a raspy voice greeted him.

"My lord."

"Divine Victoria is the leader of the Draugnir Cult." Cullen said, with a little hesitancy in his voice. The woman was a bit older than Lady Elizabeth garbed in a green robe decorated with gold and silver wearing a cowl to hide her blond tresses. She wore a symbol, a black dragon head with flames coming from its maw with emerald as its eyes. On her fingers there was a ring of similar symbol. Aries only red about the Cult lightly, not really having the time to do more in study into theological texts.

"I believe we will have much to discuss, Divine Victoria." he said very curious how the Cult started and whah it represented today.

"Of course, your worship."

"Master Alexis, Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum and Arbites." The man short black hair started greying on his sides, yet his blue eyes were vigilant. He wore an Ignotus pattern power armor. He bowed simply to the Primarch, face sat in a mask not changing since the flicker of surprise on it at the psychic burst only a minute earlier."

"Last, but not least there are the two last member: Kyros, Master of the Librarium and the Adepta Telephatica." the space marine was shorter than Cullen, his dark hair long reaching between this shoulder blades. He wore a heavily modified power armor with the legion's color. He sent a psychic greetings to his lord, which was returned.

"Lastly Sister-Commander Amelia of the Brides of Draugnir." the woman was of similar age as Felix. She wore a much less bulkier stylished power armor, displaying her feminime shape. Her heart shaped face was framed by white curls. She had plum lips set in a slight smile. Her golden eyes looked devoutedly at the Primarch's large form.

"Your worship." she bowed deeply.

"I'm pleased to meet all of you." Aries said "As you know I only woke not a day ago. I want to be informed of our current status. Let's start with what resources we have on hand." he looked over to Lord Leto who quickly looked at the scrolls handed to him by an assistant.

"The realm of Avalon consist: four Forge Worlds, five Hive Worlds, thirty-two Civilised Worlds, thiurty-three Agri Worlds, twenty-seven Mining or Indrustial Worlds, thirteen Fortress Worlds, eight Holy Worlds and twenty-four Feral or Death Worlds. A total of one hundred-forty-six worlds with its population between five hundred and six and half hundred to seven hundred billion people." Lord Leto said "The Treausy is nearly full, we can easily afford a few greater expanses."

"Thank you." Aries said "You did well, Lord Leto if what you say is true."

"I can assure it is true my lord."

"What of our armies?" the Primarch asked next.

"I can only share the latest information delivered to me by the others." Leto replied, the second half being directed to the others in the chamber "If you want please feel free to correct me." he looked over another scroll, provided by another servant "We have the Legion, forty thousands legonaire. The Army has about two and half thousand regiments with dozens being trained at the moment. The Adepta Mechanicus offer four Titan Legion, at least two hundred Skitarii or Myrmidon regiments. The Brides have eight cadre, each for the Holy Worlds." there he looked over to Felix.

"The Armade has three battlefleets with additional smaller fleets." the Admiral indeed continued the debriefing "We have twenty-nine battleship, not counting the Emerald Sword. For cruisers we have little over two hundred-fifty of them. These warships are organised into three battlefleet, one defending the centre of the Realm while tow do the same for the outer rim of it. The Legion and the Brides also have enough ships to consider their fighting force at least on par with a battlefleet."

"Any information on the enemies we, may face?" Aires asked.

"The Fortress World of Arzavir is under a minor ork assault, a battlion from the legion and dozens of regiments will be sent to help the defense. Other immediate danger isn't known for us."

"What of the Imerpium?"

"It's border is about four to five sector to the galagtic west to us, my lord."

"We will start a slow expansion." Aries decided "And I permit new Astartes chapters being made from the legion."

"Divide the Legion? I don't believe it would be wise mylord." Cullen said, reluctant to go against his Primarch wish, but couldn't just let the legion disolve. Most in the chamber looked on in agreement with the Grand Master.

"No. Not dividing it." Aries replied, shaking his head "But those who are respected and have the leadership for it could found their own company, chapter if you will."

"My lord we don't have that many planets..." lady Elizabeth tried to inject, but Aries just raised his hand.

"Yes, but we will conquer most of the surrounding space and we will need astartes to defend it, each of these new chapters will be tasked to guard a piece of it." he turned to Cullen "We will speak more of how we will select who will lead the chapters and other matters related to it. I only want to know if there is any reason we couldn't do it?"

"It depends on how large each chapter would be." Lord Leto replied "But, within reasonable bounds it shouldn't put much burden on the Treasury."

"We will need every single information regarding our neighbouring sectors. We cannot do anything without knowing of their position." Ariees replied "I still need time to adjust, but I will make decision on our next course of actions within a month."

The Council ended not long after that. There was little any of them could do. It was clear that with his arrival the Realm will change both in size and how it worked.

Aries was back at his quartes. There was little to think about but the Council. All members seemed good at what they did, the reports showed that. But how well could they work together? That was the real genius of the Emperor and Horus.

They didn't persuade something to do their binding. No, that was simple and old fashioned way to do it. They made you believe that t was everybody best interest if you did what was asked of you. Their charisma was such that even the Primarchs were affected.

He himself was a born leader as all of his brothers. But he also knew that he didn't possess that overhelming charisma that those two. Luckily the none of the Council members were at each others throat as sometimes happened with his brothers.

Of course there were disdain, mostly by Archmagos Maximus and Divine Victoria. It was mostly theological as it turned out and it would take decades if not centuries before he changed their teaching subtly enough not to cause any aminosity.

Regarding the Mechanicus it seemed that there was three factions inside of it. The Loyalists were practically the same as in the Imperium. The second, the Revenalist determined that their technology suffered and couldn't be maintained without research. And the smallest was the Xenoists were those who wanted to study the alien technology and reverse engineer them. What was very surprising that all three could operate in the open, even if usually the Loyalist won the arguments. Not so surprising considering that each Archmagos came from that faction, 'till Maximus who was part of the Revenalists.

That lead to the Realm at least being on the same technological level as the Imperium was at the end of the Great Crusade, which wasn't true for the Imperium itself. There were a few innovations like other power armor variants in use.

But for all of this his flagship the Emperor's Will, renamed to Emerald Sword was unfunctional. He didn't had the time to see the ancient warship which was directly above the palace. There were many reasons to do so, but one stood out of others. When the Emperor sent him and Seichi on their mission he gifted each Legion a datacore with nearly every information concerning technology. If it remained functional they will have access to such mighty warmachines as the Fellblade.

It was the Cult of Draugnir he was worried about. The Cult looked at him as a two faced god and that was very dangerous. Why? Because there were hundreds of billions following the it. With how the Immaterium worked his followers gave himstrength, but and that was what really worried him could alter him.

He will have to speak with the Divine, but for now he had one other thing to do. Met with his partner, who stood with him in all of his battle.

"Cullen, where is Ancalagon?"


	9. Harry Potter 1

**AN1: Alright, this is probably the last chapter of the Shards of tales before I upload the rewritten version of the Star Wars Legends: Beginning.**

**AN2: When I was younger I didn't noticed this but Rowling didn't really showed us anything aside of England and focused on Europe. I mean seriously? Ten dragons and only three is not of Europe? (I revised it. I am currently at 22 and only 9 European, if you want i can upload that as something of a codex entry.)**

**AN3: The site was nice enough to clear my formating. I'm sorry if some of it will remain as it is. i will try and make it readable.**

**AN4: As always reviews are welcome, but flames will be either ignored or deleted. Thank you!**

**Chapter I**

_Return_

It was a nice summer afternoon near the sunset actually, with soft breeze. It was a perfect time for a walk or a jog in the park. Few residents of Privet Drive took up the offer. After all most were either too old to do something like this or worked all they long and had no energy for it.

Save for two people: Claire Denning, young police woman and Harry Potter a fourteen year old boy. The boy was there just as yesterday, though now it was for different reason. He walked home from his friend's house where they celebrated their basketball team winning a practice match against their rival school.

Harry wasn't a member of the team because of his height even when it was a maybe the most important factor for player. He was there because he was always aware of his surroundings, namely the players making him an excellent point guard. Not only that but his reflexes and agility enabled him to play as a small forward if needed.

Everyone who had seen him and his relatives could hardly believe they were related. His aunt, Petunia was also lean, but where Harry was muscular she was thin. Her husband, Vernon and son, Dudley were the opposite: huge bodies ideal for wrestling, rugby, boxing or the like. The only problem was that they didn't moved, only when necessary. Though Dudley will be going to a gym at the start of the school year. Maybe even take up boxing.

Harry didn't only stood out with his lean body, but with the color of both his eyes and hair. The Dudleys, even his aunt had blond hair against his raven locks. His deep, almond shaped green eyes also set him apart from them as they all had the most common brown eyes. Yet, his most distinct feature was a thin lighting bolt shaped scar on his forehead. His aunt said he got it in the car accident which killed his parents.

The young teenager waved at Claire who still jogged around the park. The young woman waved back with a smile, but didn't slowed down. Harry could only shake his head at the girl. He could hardly believe that she had enough energy to jog as many laps as she did after doing long hours of work.

When Harry stepped in the Privet Drive 4, a two storey house nearly identical to the others next to it, his uncle sat before the television while his aunt was in the kitchen making tea. He didn't need to ask were Dudley was. He knew that he was with his band smoking and drinking on the streets.

His uncle didn't noticed him, too engrossed in the news (and grumpling about them). Though his aunt noticed him both only greeted with a tense nod. Harry quickly grabbed a sandwitch and made his way to his room upstairs.

It was a little agreement between the two: Harry tries to stay out of their way and they won't speak with him. It worked pretty well, so he had no reason to complain. His aunt and uncle never lied about it: only because it was their duty, dictated by law did they took him in.

His was the smallest bedroom in the house. The furniture: his bed, desk, wardrobe and a single bookself took up most of its space. He gone to his wardrobe wanting to take a towel out, but a sound, screech really, had him turning to his desk. There was an owl, a very big, brown owl. He looked at the open window wishing he didn't opened it before the game. How could he guess that a bird, an owl at that would find his room so relaxing to fly in?

Harry got used to strange things happening around him. His hair grew back once when he was eight overnight. Once he 'teleported' onto the top of school while being chased by Dudley and his friends. Another time he was late of his basketball match and 'teleported' to a nearby alley, nearly two miles away as he later estimated. Speaking of basketball: he caught balls he shouldn't be able to, sometimes as if the balls fall was delayed. Not to mention that he always had a strange affinity to animals. He could easily read their moods and get them to do his requests.

Trying to connect to the owl as he called his abilty he found out that he couldn't do it. It was like something was preventing him to do so. Well, he never tried to do it with an owl so maybe he couldn't? Or the owl was strange: owls usually didn't flied until dark as far as he knew.

Being in a room with an animal where he could only guess if it was hostile or not wasn't reasuring. It didn't seemed as the owl wanted to attack him, but it did screeched at him.

He looked at the door, it was three meters away and he instinctly closed it behind him stepping inside. He quickly started to guess how fast he could open the door and how fast could the owl attack him. He half prayed that his aunt would come up to see what was the noise before, but knew it was unlikely. Even if she heard it, doubtfully as it wasn't that loud, she most likely just shook her head and turned back to her tea. Why would anything screech in her house after all?

He looked at the owl again and his jaws dropped. The owl held out his leg to wich a letter was attached. Who thought it would be funny to do a prank like this? Not only that, but the owl looked at him like he was an idiot. He didn't know how he did but the bird big yellow eyes conveyed the meaning quite well.

It was maybe a stupid move, but he inched towards the animal hands reaching for the letter. He hoped that there was a signature as he wanted to have a few words with whoever came up with this. The owl let him take the letter. On the cover there was a crest of a lion, a snake, a hawk and a baddger surrounding a big H letter. Opening up he slowly started to read the first page.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL _of_ WITCHCRAFT _and_ WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,  
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

Dear Mr Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Seeing a second page he quickly run through that. It was, just as the first page said, the list of the needed equipment. He sat down the chair before his desk, thinking about it. It was impossible: magic simply didn't exist. But the owl was unusually intelligent and it was too elaborated prank to be done by his friends. More so for his cousin: Dudley was always a straight thinking boy, when he thought on anything.

"Can you wait for a minute?" he asked the owl, feeling a little silly for doing so. The owl bobbed his head. Realizing that maybe he should give it something he asked again "Would you like some water as you wait?"

After getting a much more profuse head bobbing he quickly made his way down to fill his mug with water and running back to his room, gaining Aunt Petunia's disapproving glare but he paid it no mind. Placing the mug before the owl he sat down again at his desk getting a paper from one of the drawers. He wrote a few lines before attaching it to the owl's leg.

"Can you take it to Ms. McGonagall?" the owl looked at Harry like he insulted the animal before taking off. _"Alright, it's just crazy. An owl don't understand speech. Maybe he recognized a few words like watter and McGonagall." _

Harry didn't slept well on that night he read the letter again and again, until he memorized both papers. It was stupid but he couldn't help but wonder what would it mean if it is real? If magic truly existed? There were a few things that happened around him that he had no explanation for. He fell into slumber with these thoughts.

* * *

Unknown to Harry the owl made his way to a great castle on the Scottish Highlands. It was dark by this time but many of the castle numerous windows showed light behind the glass. The owl flew towards one of those windows on a higher floor of the castle. Landing on the window-sill without being noticed from the inside he tapped the glass with his peak.

Only a few moments passed until the window opened up to allow the owl inside. It was a fairly large room, the wallls filled with bookcases the room dominated by the large wooden desk and two comfortable chair before it. In the chair behind it sat a woman of her early fifties. She looked at the owl landing on her desk (luckily not on the paper he just signed) with a frown as she removed the letter from the owl's leg. Minerva McGonagall knew the owl, it was one of the most experienced and reliable they had. And it was this owl who delivered the acceptance letter to Harry Potter today if she remembered right.

She looked at the letter, a simple paper folded up, she will need to speak with Mr. Potter how a letter should look like and started to read.

Madam McGonagall,

I received a surprising letter from you this afternoon. I'm afraid I require more information about some of the claims of the letter. Even if what you wrote is true (which I'm doubtful of,) I know no place where I could acquire the equipment described on the second page. I ask for another letter to clear things up.

Yours sincerely,

Harry J. Potter

The witch felt her eyes widen as she read the letter. It seemed that Harry Potter didn't really believed in magic, like a common muggle. This was impossible. She was there on that night when Dumbledore placed the young Harry Potter on the doorsteps of his mother sister with a letter placed on his chest explaining everything.

And when she said everything she meant it. From the predicted accidental magics to how to reach the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley, the locations of each shop and a warning against going into Knockturn Alley. She was honestly looking forward meeting James and Lily Potter's son in the upcomming school year, but it seemed her curiousity will be sated well before that.

She will need to speak with Albus about going over to introduce the wizarding world to Harry. She won't be there to met the Flamels as Dumbledore asked for the members of the faculty to met the two legendary alchemists. She wasn't entirely sure what will be said. She hoped that Dumbledore persuaded them to keep lectures about alchemy or honestly any field of magic. They lived for more than five hundreds years, most spent with studying the different magical disciplines.

* * *

The next morning was normal in Harry's opinion. He worked on his aunt's flowerbed, got a shower and had a snack. He didn't exactly know what did he except to happen after he sent the letter, but he knew deep down that something should have happened. Either those who organised the prank coming out or this McGonagall writing back. He constantly watched the sky for another owl, but none came.

Dudley was already in his room, presumedly playing one of his many computer games. It was funny as his cousin started eating his own snack well before him, yet only finished a minute earlier. Dudley was well on his way to reach his father size around his belly, which wasn't something anyone would envy.

As he made his way out of the kitchen the doorbell rang. He went up the stairs only to stop at the middle as his aunt screamed after opening the front door. Harry could hear that Vernon already came from his seat at the table. Harry himself also run back to the front door. They might hold little feeling for each other but Petunia was his aunt.

Stopping next to his chalk white aunt he looked at their visitor. The woman was in her fifties, wearing a black robe. She must have been a striking beauty in her younger years. Even if some of her beauty faded she still held herself in a regal manner. She had her black hair combed back into a tight bun. Her severe expression relaxed sightly at seeing Harry.

"Mr. Potter! A pleasure to finally met you. I'm Professor Minerva McGonagoll. It seems that the two of us have much to discuss. And I would like to have a few words with your relatives as well." she said as she stepped inside the house looking at Vernon standing at the kitchen and Dursley who stood at the top of the stairs disapprovingly.

"What do you think you are doing, coming here in daylight?" Petunia seemed to come out of her shock as she hissed at the older woman. Who looked her in the eyes as they were on the same height, Harry noted with such a look that it didn't surprised him that his aunt shut up.

"I cast several charms on me. They won't notice I was there at all."

"You say you use magic but I would like to see solid proof of it." Harry interfered, before his aunt could retort as they made their way into sitting room. McGonagall took out a stick, a wand. With an elegant flick the table between two armchair and the couch turned into a pig. Before they could get over their shock another flick transformed it back. Harry could only look between the woman and the table, dimly noting how she only used three fingers to hold her wand.

"I think we should sit down, Mr. Potter." McGonagall said gently. She and Harry seated themselves on the two armchairs while the Dursley family took up the couch, barely fitting it thanks to their son's size. "I believe your aunt and uncle never told you about magic, is that right?"

"Yes, ma'am." Harry replied casting a glance at his relatives. Dudley of course looked completely lost, while his aunt was white as the walls while Vernon seemed to shocked into silence. Not many were able to silence Vernon Dursley, his uncle took great pleasure at roaring his dissatisfaction with anything.

"Mrs. Dursley could I ask you why did you not talked about magic with your nephew?" the Scottish woman turned to his aunt. Which prompted him to ask.

"She knew about magic?"

"Of course." McGonagall voice was calm, but Harry suspected from how thin her lips became that it was only forced calmness "Your parents were both magical after all. After they were killed we thought it was best for you to grow up with your aunt. We left a letter with you explaining everything."

"Burned it as soon as I found it on him." Petunia said nodding to Harry, her voice full of defiance and anger "We, Vernon and I, wanted a simple life. I wanted no part of my sister weird things in it. Then you dumbed a baby on us! You didn't even asked us if we wanted to take him in!"

"And no day pass without you making it clear that you don't want to see me." came the dry reply from the young man "I assume the story of my parents dieing in a car accident was false as well."

"Car accident?!" McGonagall didn't scream. _"Perhaps it would be better."_ Harry thought. The hiss which those two words came out of her and her green eyes staring at them in rage was far more intimediating them any shouting. All members of the Dursley family shook as leaves.

"Miss McGonagall, ma'am." while Harry could be careless about how much she scared them, the witch seemed close enough to curse them. Or transform them into pigs. _"Though it would matter little in the case of Vernon and Dudley." _

"My apologies, Mr. Potter." she came back to her senses at Harry's timid adress. She mentally flinched at how close she came to curse the two adult in front of her. Not because they didn't told Harry about magic. There were many reason some could do it. Not because they told him that his parents died in a car accident. If they didn't explained that magic indeed existed they couldn't just tell him the whole story without spells.

What angered her so much was the clear disregard for both Harry and his parents. The clear disgust on their face. It was too much for her.

"It may be best if we continue our conservation in my room." Harry suggested. McGonagall nodded, sending him a slight smile, showing that her temper wasn't directed at him. Harry quickly stood up lading her out and up the stairs. The witch, after one last withering look at the family on the couch, followed him.

Harry let her in first as he opened the door of his witch curiously looked around before looking back at the young man closing the door. The boy awkwardly gestured to the old chair before his desk. McGonagall gracefully sat down, paying no mind to the soft sound comming from it.

"I will be honest with you, Mr. Potter. I feared that your relatives would be more abusive towards you but your room tells a different story." the woman looked around her eyes finding the only picture in the room at the desk right corner. There were a group of kids on it with a pair of adult.

"They won't want to ruin their image as the "perfect middle-class family" built up in their entire lifes, just because of me. If physical discipline was still accepted I think they would love to use it on me, though." Harry shrugged.

"Are those your friends, Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked pointing at the picture.

"Yes my basketball team." Harry smiled "Playing as a point guard and small forward if needed for nearly four year now. They are my best friends."

"Basketball?" Harry couldn't help but chuckle at her frown. She was obviously trying to remember if she ever heard of the game. Confidant that she didn't, he explained the sport in a few sentences. "Remind me of Quidditch. It is a bit more complicated than this basketball thing." she said at last, before smirking a little "Or did you simplify it to me?"

"Maybe a bit." Harry grinned. It seemed that if you found her at the right moment McGonagall was fairly lively. "If you want I can tell more detail at a later date."

"I would like that very much, thank you. I'm afraid I'm not very well-informed of today's mundane culture." she admitted. Then the next moment she became all businesslike. "You must have a lot of questions, but first let me explain the general things. If you have any question during it or after I'm more then happy to answer them."

"Alright." it seemed reasonable enough for Harry to just go with the flow. "First allow me to introduce myself again. I'm Professor Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts and head of House Gryffindor. I teach Transfiguration. I ask you that you use the correct adress for me and my collegues: Madam or Professor McGonagall."

"Madam for when we aren't at school?"

"Precisely, but most student wait until they finish Hogwarts to use it. Some never does." she replied. Harry nodded at that, but had to ask about one of what she just said.

"What is Gryffindor?"

"Hogwarts' studentbody is divided into four Houses: Slyntherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor to which I'm the head of as I said before. Each house has it's noble history and produced many exceptional wizards and witches."

"How will it be decided which House should I belong to? Or is it our choice?" Harry asked intriqued by it.

"It will be decided on the welcoming feast. I won't say how exactly it will be done though, it's a surprise." she replied, then said mostly to herself "It is interesting: I never once thought about letting the students decide it for themselves. Maybe because it is tradition, but even so..." Harry softly coughed causing McGonagall to snap back to their conservation.

"There are bound to be some difference between the Houses or they wouldn't be there at all. Could you explain it to me?" he asked.

"Of course. Each House represent a few characteristics which are said to be prominent in their members. Slytherins are ambitious and cunning, Hufflepuffs are loyal and hardworking, Ravenclaws are studious and resourceful, while Gryffindors are brave and daring. Of course it's only their more prominent trait. I have seen many clever Hufflepuff and brave Slytherins." seeing Harry's nod she continued "The four House compete for the House Cup each year."

"Doesn't it results in rivalries?" Harry asked, if the House Cup was a point of honor it could easily cause not so gentle rivalries between them.

"Most often it is friendly. Each classes are held for two Houses at a time allowing them to form connection with each other. There are a few more serious cases, but most near entirely leave the House boundaries after their fourth or fifth year." McGonagall replied with a shrug, then added Harry may just imagined it, with a rather smug little smile "They have too little time apart from studying to cause trouble."

"I see. How do you know that I have magic?" he asked. Yes, there were unexplainable things occurring around him, but he never showed something like her transfiguration.

"We knew it as Lily was quite proud of your first show of magical talents." McGonagall replied with a soft smile, remembering the brilliant young woman "But to answer your question I'm sure that there were incidents which there were no answers. You did something that you couldn't explain." she said, closely watching his face.

"Yes, some... and some to which I don't know if it was magical or not." he replied.

"Maybe I can help."

"I think I can control animals. Birds, dogs, cats, snakes..." McGonagall was impressed Harry could tell.

"How long have you been able to do that, Harry?" he raised an eyebrow at the first name, but answered anyway. "I don't remember exactly. I know I used it when I was about six-seven?" if it was possible McGonagall looked even more impressed, Harry had a feeling that it was rare to occur.

"That's very impressive Mr. Potter. It is very rare to somebody to be able to do this, let alone so young. You should be proud of yourself!"

"Thank you." Harry was happy that he showed some aptitude for magic as he wasn't that talented in most subjects. He got good grades but it was mostly because of hard-work and Claire, a genius in her own right, helped him. Thinking of that made him think about the future and the problem he may face... "Professor I don't know how to tell you..."

"Simply if you can." the woman dryly replied with a raised eyebrow, though with a small smile.

"I don't have money." Harry said, not really embarrassed as he was in his younger years, having years to adept to it "Well, I have money. Just not enough to allow me to buy me who knows how much magical equipment. And as you could guess my aunt and uncle wouldn't give me money, let alone to spend it on magical tuition."

"But you said you have money. If they didn't give it..." she replied thoroughly confused.

"I'm doing odd jobs in the neighborhood for a while. My relatives only allow me to stay because the law makes them responsible for me. As soon as I'm eighteen and I'm no longer welcome in their home."

"Those..." McGonagall started to say, eyes wide with rage, but Harry stopped her.

"I wouldn't stay until necessary as well, so it isn't something to complain about."

"I see." McGonagall quietly replied "You don't need to worry your parents left you a sizable amount of money. A little fortune all things considered. You will be only able to access a small part of it, but it is more than enough to fund your education." Harry was surprised at hearing that. He suspected that some of his aunt tales of how his parents had nothing on their name was a lie, but it seemed that they were at least of the higher end of the middle-class.

"One more... I mean two more things." McGonagall said as she glanced at the picture of his team "The Wizarding World is a secret. You cannot tell anybody about it only your relatives. Your blood relatives. So to your friends and... well, female companion you should just tell that you go into a Scottish public school."

"What? I don't..." Harry looked at the picture and noticed that he was hugging Kate Brown from behind "We aren't together anymore."

"Oh, I'm sorry." McGonagall coughed, obviously uncomfortable speaking of his personal life, before speaking up again "Our last topic is a bit hard to speak about. You may want to sit down before I begin."

Harry raised an eyebrow before sitting down on his bed. Not only did McGonagall strike him as someone who knew when to be serious, but he himself felt a strange uneasiness in the air.

"I think I will start at the beginning. I don't believe that I need to say it but there are some who doesn't hesitate to use anything to archive their goals. Magicals and mundanes both." McGonagall said. Harry just nodded, resisting to roll his eyes "There were two in this century who tried to grab absolute power in the wizarding world: Gellert Grindenwald who was defeated in 1945, by Headmaster Dumbledore. Yes, our wars often correspond to each other." she said seeing that Harry connected the date to that of the end of Word War II "He was fearsome, many died at his hand. All hoped that we look forward to peaceful decades even century."

"I guess it didn't happened." Harry said seeing where the professor was going with this little speech.

"No, it didn't." McGonagall confirmed "Only three decades later another Dark Lord surfaced. We thought Grindenwald was terrible, but... He was beyond even that. " she shuddered "I don't think you can truly understand it. He was so terrible that few dare to utter his name even today."

Harry was stunned. At first it seemed very foolish to do. After all why could even saying a name invoke fear? Then he remembered that he knew nothing of the magical world. Maybe it was considered bad luck to invoke the name of the evil?

"We don't know how did they knew, but those who said it during the war were often found dead. Only a few could do it without repercussion. It became a polite thing to not to say his name. We call him You-Know-Who."

"So you can't tell me his real name?" Harry asked. It would be uncomfortable not even knowing the real name of the man.

"I don't know it." McGonagall replied "He called himself Lord Vo-Vol-Voldemort." Harry was good at judging a person and McGonagall didn't seemed easily frightened. If she was this skittish of this Dark Lord he at least could understand why many feared him. She continued "Only the Headmaster was able to stand on equal ground with him. He gathered those who were willing to fight against the Dark Lord. Your parents were among them." despite not remembering them Harry couldn't help but feel proud of them "They were good people Harry and very talented. On October 31 of 1981 they were attacked by You-Know-Who. Sadly, they were no match for him. But, when he tried to kill you something happened. The curse rebounded from you onto him destroying his physical body."

"I don't know if I understand it, but you make it sound like I defeated him." Harry was not overly modest, but knew that the probability that a one year old baby could do anything to a grown wizard was ludicrously low.

"We don't know for certain what happened there on that night. It could be you, your father, your mother... But You-Know-Who was defeated and that what mattered to most. You were the only one left alive, with only a scar on your forehead... That was enough for the public. You are the Boy-Who-Lived the only person to ever survive the killing curse cast by wizard."

"Are you saying that I'm famous for something I don't even remember?" Harry asked, but something nudged at his mind. Before she could respond he asked about it "Professor the curse, the one that was used on me... Could it be green by any chance?" There was a moment of silence before a horrified McGonagall replied in a shaky voice.

"Yes, pale green."

"I thought it was a nightmare. I only see a green flash and hear a scream, a woman screaming." Harry replied back softly.

"I... I don't know what to say Harry. I'm sorry."

"Thank you." For a minute neither said anything, both thinking over their conservation. Finally McGonagall stood up. She knew that some of what she just said must have been difficult to deal with even if the boy showed nothing outwardly. Yet, they needed to get going, buying the equipment for Hogwarts could take up most of the day.

"Mr. Potter... Harry we need to go and purchase your equipment for Hogwarts."

"Alright. How do we travel there? And where exactly are we going?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I think we should use apparation. It is a near instant method of transportation. We will be going to London." the witch replied raising her arm "Please take my hand and you must not let it go during our travel." Harry firmly took hold of her hand, maybe a little more firmly than necessary. McGonagall didn't commented but gave a reassuring smile before they apparated away. It was uncomfortable to say the list, as his body was twisted into different positions as it gone through a small hole. He let go of McGonagall's hand as soon as his feet landed, sinking to his knees.

"Are you alright?" came the worried voice of his companion.

"I will live. Thank you." he said slowly getting back on his feet "This was unpleasant."

"For the first time it is for everyone." McGonagall reassured him "Those who tried after lunch often leave some of it on their destination."

"Lucky me." Harry dryly replied.

"Lucky you." McGonagall said with a slight smirk "Let's go."

That was when Harry noticed that they were in an alley. McGonagall went towards one of its end without hesitation, Harry closely following her. Stepping on the pavement McGonagall directed his attention to the pub on their side. It was an old building, Victorian style. The Leaky Cauldron the trade-sign read. Harry looked around. It wasn't the most used street but there were a fair amount of people walking around. What caught his eyes was that none seemed to look at the building. Even he and the professor only got a few quick glances.

"Are they not seeing us? Or the pub?"

"No, that would be very crude method." McGonagall said with a grimace at the thought "It is made so they can see us but don't take notice. It is amazing just how much we don't notice of our surroundings and if we add a bit of magical help into it..."

"They wouldn't even remember the pub. Maybe for a moment or two but no more" Harry finished. McGonagall nodded approvingly "But what about us?"

"We are inside the magic's range." McGonagall replied "That's why I used the alley behind us as our destination. It is one of the safe points to use. Even if most think it is beneath them to try and be discreet from the mundanes."

Stepping into the pub Harry was assaulted by the smell of the smokes, pipes mostly, alcohol and loud talking. He closely followed McGonagall, as the crowd seemed to open for the witch. The pub was nearly full. At least fourty-fifty men and women were there. The bartender gave a smile to McGonagall. He was old, smallish, a little below Harry's height with bald head.

"Professor McGonagall! Welcome! It has been a long time since I last saw you." his voice was a little coarse, but otherwise friendly.

"Tom! How have you been?" Harry started to suspect that they were more familiar with each other than other patrons.

"Good! I have been busy as of late thankfully. Many try and get to the Alley before the first years show up. Of course most will need to come back. I heard that some of the books still hasn't arrived."

"Just as the year before." McGonagall sighed "I've tried to speak with them but they said they need the booklist earlier if we want all of them to be avaible in July. Well, I hope we can find everything for Harry."

"Merlin's beard! This is Harry Potter!" Tom wasn't that loud, but instantly the entire pub become silent as a graveyard. Harry could only think of one course of action.

"Nice to meet you, sir. I'm Harry Potter." he said as he raised his hand to shake.

The pub exploded. Every one rushed to get close to Harry. Tom was still shaking his hand while others just shouted to Harry.

"Welcome back Mr. Potter!"

"It's an honor to finally meet you Mr. Potter!"

There were dozens, each asking question, each wanting to shake his hands, pat his shoulder or speak with him. McGonagall stepped in as it was clear that Harry couldn't respond to all of this even if he wanted to.

"Please be gentle! Mr. Potter only joined our world today. Let's make a good impression on him!"

It was like a spell. All of them calmed down as if fearing him disappearing righ under their nose for another thirteen years. After a quarter hour they made their way to the back of the pub, McGonagall having enough of the patron's demeanor.

"Please, pay attention. " she said as she tapped a brick, the one three up and two across from the trash can, with her wand. The brick wall seemed to came alive as it molded itself into an archway. "Mr: Potter, welcome to Diagon Alley."

The alley mostly went straight with cobblestones covering it. On the two sides there were all kind of buildings: most of them shops selling all kind of magical items, but there were restaurants, apartments, publishing houses. Before several shop there were stalls with vendors trying to sell their goods.

McGonagall didn't seemed to make any detour as she walked towards a large, white building, the largest in the entire Alley by far. It was made of marble and above the entrance golden letters proclaimed proudly: Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

"This is Horizont Alley." McGonagall said as she pointed to the Alley crossing Diagon Alley. "And this is the Gringotts. Be on your best behavior: it is run by goblins and they don't like rude people. Neither overly nice ones."

"Why?" Harry asked as they took the steps leading up to the door of the bank.

"For they it means that the person wants to hide something." McGonagall said.

Harry's first impression of the goblins was dual. The pair at the door wore a red uniform, were of about fifty inches in height. They had brown, 'earthy' skintone, long fingers and pointed ears and nose. Their cunning black eyes and pointed teeth however made them seems less friendly. Inside there were dozens of goblins in uniforms, most behind desk with a few standing around as security with only half as many customers.

McGonagall didn't paid any attention to them or the decour as she made her way to the nearest free teller.

"Yes?" the teller seemed old and a bit unfriendly.

"Taking money out of Mr. Potter's vault as well as placing an item into Vault 713. We would like to purchase one of your pouches as well. " McGonagall said taking out a little golden key with the number 687 engraved in it and a letter.

The teller first examined the key, running his clawed finger on it. Not finding anything wrong with it he nodded and gave it back to the witch. He then opened one of the drawlers on his desk and took out a little, dark leather pouch. McGonagall put a few silver coins on the desk which the goblin quickly took away.

He then turned to the letter, which Harry noticed bore the Hogwarts crest just as his admittance letter. Quickly reading it he nodded his hand a second time before using the bell-button. Only a few moments latter a younger goblin in uniform.

"Griphook take Mr. Potter and Madam McGonagall down to the vaults."

"This way please." the younger goblin's voice was less deep and a touch more polite than the teller's. T

he vaults were accessed by mine carts. They were going at incredible speed taking turns, sometimes going nearly horizontally up and down. Harry immensely enjoyed the way and had a feeling that McGonagall also did. Stepping out in front of Vault 687, which was Harry's vault.

Taking the key Griphook opened it up. Inside there were a large amount of coins. Large gold ones in neat stocks, a bit smaller silvers in equally neat stock if larger and small coppers in heaps. Looking around he could see that there were several heap of all kind.

"How much should I take out?" Harry asked the witch. She handed him the pouch. Harry stared disbelievingly at it. He estimated that only a dozen or so from the gold or the silver ones could fit in it.

"It is charmed to be expanded on the inside." McGonagall said "It can take much more than you think. For your question about ten golden, twenty silver and fifty copper should be alright. There are some automated teller machine in Diagon and Horizont Alley."

Taking a small ride they arrived at Vault 713. Unlike Harry's vault Griphook used his finger to open it, running it across where the two half of the door met. Seeing Harry's dumbfounded expression he smugly said:

"Goblin magic. Anyone else try to open it up and he finds himself in a security vault."

"How often do you check them?" Harry asked as the goblin stepped out of the way.

"Every decade or so." Griphook grin turned nasty. Harry rather focused on the vault trying not to shudder at the thought of starvation. To his disappointment the vault was empty save a simple pedestal. McGonagall stepped in placed a small package, maybe six or seven inch long and half across wrapped in old, brown paper, onto the pedestal.

Harry didn't asked McGonagall about the mysterious package on their way back. He knew that she wouldn't answer it and honestly after stepping out the prospect of finally be able to explore this place diverted his attention.

"The gold coins are called galleons and each worth a hundred silver coins, which are called sickles. The sickles also worth a hundred copper knuts apiece." McGonagall said as they made their way down the steps of Gringotts.

"It's rather simple." Harry commented as they made their way towards the first shop, thankful for that fact.

"It is much better than what we had. Before 1801 each galleon worth 17 sickles or 493 knuts. It must have been maddening for wizard kind."

"Why those numbers?" Harry asked confused. Those numbers seemed totally random for him!

"Because it was decided by goblins and they don't think like us." McGonagall replied as they stepped into Flourish and Blotts, the largest bookstore in the Alley.

Purchasing his equipment with McGonagall was different compared all the time he went shopping with the Dursley. Not only did the witch explained things to him and adviced him, but she wasn't complaining of the prices all the time like his relatives. It wasn't that lonmg before they made it trough the list with only the robes and the wand remaining.

McGonagall directed Harry towards Madam Malkin while she went on another errand. Stepping inside the shop Harry noted that there were only a few customers, most without a guide. There was an older female fussing around them.

"Welcome! Sit down overthere." she said pointing a chair next to a young redhead. Harry noted that she hit puberty already with a hourglass figure already forming. In a few years she will have an incredible body. "Hogwarts dear?" she asked as she fitted another girl with black hair and shockingly vibrant blue eyes across them.

"Yes, ma'am." Harry replied as he sat down. "Hello, I'm Harry."

"Susan." the girl replied with a smile "Are you also a first year like me?"

"Yes. I'm fairly excited about it!" Harry replied with a grin. The girl smiled back. "Yes, from what my aunt told me it is amazing.""Lucky you, I only know about for about five hours." Harry replied.

"Mundane parents?" Susan asked back interested.

"Orphan. Lived with my mundane aunt and uncle."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" the girl was morified at her blunder.

"You couldn't know of it." Harry shrugged. "I'm very interested this House system I heard about." he said trying to deter the conservation.

"I'm fairly certain I will be a Hufflepuff." Susan said. Seeing Harry's questioning glance she elaborated "It is said that some family usually go into one particular house. My parents and aunt were Puffs along with the majority of my family."

"Interesting. I heard we are going to selected by our talent, but what you said doesn't sound exactly like that." Harry said with a frown "Do you know anything how we will sorted?"

"No. My aunt said it was a 'surprise'." Susan replied with an adorable pout "I dodn't know much about the mundane world..." she probed.

"I would be happy to tell you about it." Harry grinned as they started to tell each other of their respective worlds. "_Mada Malkin is very talented." _Harry thought as he joined McGonagall at the front of the shop with a final wave to Susan, who also joined an older woman, preassumably her aunt. _"She easily fitted us even as we continued our discussion without bothering us."_

"It seems that you acquired your first friend in the wizarding world, Mr. Potter." McGonagall observed with a smile on her face.

"Yes, Susan is very nice." Harry nodded looking back at the girl.

"I have a gift for you." McGonagall's words caused him to whip his head towards her. In her hands there was a cage and in it there was a beautiful snow owl, her amber eyes gazing at him. Harry recalled a section of the second page of his admittance letter where the pets were discussed.

"Thank you, professor." he said, his soft voicce full of emotion. McGonagall silently watched as he gently touched the owl's head, to which the animal responded by gently nipping at his fingers.

Their last stop was the Ollivander wand shop. The doorbell clearly rang out, yet no one came to welcome them. The shop was full of narrow boxes on dozens of selves along the walls and standing in the middle as well. Harry could only guess as he stepped to the middle of the room, but he was certain that the numbers were in the several hundreds easily maybe thousands. The only other furniture was a plain, old desk with a lamp and parchment on it.

"Welcome." came a ghostly voice behind him, making him jump a little and turning towards the speaker. Ollivander was a tall, old man with fuzzy, greying hair and soiul reaching silver eyes.

"Mr. Potter, so enough year passed... It was just like yesterday when your parents came in for their first wand. Every wand crafted in my hands use one of these three as their magical core: phoenix feather, dragon heartstring or unicorn tailhair. Your father was eleven inches, Mahogany with dragon heartstring as the core. It was a powerful wand, excellent for transfiguration, in which your father had a exceptional talent." Harry looked back at McGonagall who nodded at him. This caused Mr. Ollivander to also turn towards the witch.

"Minerva McGonagall. Nine and half inch, with Fir wood and dragon heartstring as ?" McGonagall nodded "I hope you take great care of it." the professor handed her wand to the wandmaker who turned it around before taking a whisk making a bouquet of roses appear out of thin air. "It is in excellent condition my dear." he said handing it back to the professor, before turning back to Harry

"Where was I? Ah, yes. Your father's wand... Well, your mother chosen a ten and quarter inch Willow wand with the core being unicorn hair, swishy, nice for charms." he said as he walked around Harry. "Of course I said she choose it. It isn't that simple, it's the wand that choose the wizard and not the other way around. Every wand is unique Mr. Potter, just as every witch and wizard is unique. You can use other wands of course but you will never get the same result with them. Now, Mr. Potter which is your dominant hand?"

"Right, but I can use my left nearly as well." Harry replied.

"Interesting." Ollivander said as he took out a measuring-tape. The wandmaker disappeared between the shelves as the tape did its job on its own, measuring both Harry's arms then started on other parts of his body.

"That's enough!" Ollivander said, returning with dozens of boxes. He handed the first wand to Harry, but nearly instantly snatch it from the young man's hand. Harry didn't understand what Ollivander wanted to see or if he even wanted to see anything. McGonagall seemed resigned as if it happened often, but became more and more agited as the pile at Harry's side started to grow. Ollivander on the other hand seemed to be happier with each failure. They tried everything from seven to thirteen inches, all three cores and dozens different wood.

"Tricky customer, eh? Don't worry, everyone has a wand that suit him or her! Let see.. Yes, why not?" the wandmaker returned but only with one wand this time "Please, try it Mr. Potter. It's a strange combination Holly wood with phoenix tail as the core and eleven inches long, but nice and supple."

When Harry finger touched the wand he could feel some kind of warm feeling travelling through his arm. He made a gentle sweep with it causing gold and silver glimmer to appear.

"Bravo, Mr. Potter. Bravo! You found your first wand! " Ollivander said politely clapping just McGonagall did. "Please, come to the desk. It will be seven galleon."

"Maybe Mr. Potter will want a wand pollishing kit as well." McGonagall said "If you take careof your wand it will repay you with affection." Harry just nodded.

"Here you go!" Ollivander handed him the wand and the kit after taking the seven galleon and ten sickles for it. The wandmaker hesitated for a moment before speaking up "I maybe shouldn't tell you this, but I feel that you need to know of the strange Fate you seem to carry."

"What do you mean?"

"Your wand... there were two tails that that phoenix gave to me. Only two. They are brother wands. And you encountered the other as well." McGonagall suddenly looked very pale "Yes, it was me that sold that wand as well. The wand that made that scar on your forehead."

"Thank you for telling me, sir." Harry said automatically.

Stepping outside the two of them were silent for a minute before harry spoke up. "Do it always take that much time to find your wand?"

"No, but it can take quite long. Your maybe the one of the longest, nearly two hour." McGonagall said before asking Harry "If I'm right you don't wish to go back to your relatives."

"No, but I will need to because of my things." Harry said with a grimace before he could control himself.

"No need. I will make a quick stop at there if you want and send it to where you stay. Speaking of which if you allow me I could introduce to someone who could help you fit in the magical world." McGonagall said.

"Thank you."

They headed down to Horizont Alley without a word. Harry was busy looking at the people, shops... everything really. They stopped in front of a three level, cream color house between a restaurant and a herb-shop. McGonagalldidn't hesitated to knock on the brown front door. Before long it opened up, revealing a tall, black, silky haired woman with aristocratic onyx eyes looked happily on the duo.

"Minerva! How nice to see you! Come in!" she stepped out the way to allow them entry. After the door closed behind them Minerva coughed, but the woman didn't wait for it.

"You must be Harry. You look just like James, only you have Lily eyes." she smiled at him and Harry could feel his ears burning. She was one of the prettiest woman he had ever seen. Then she gently hugged him "I'm Andromeda Tonks, but please call me Andy."


	10. Game of Thrones: The Prince

AN1: Sorry for the long wait! I had a bit of writer block for my main fanfics (still have some). I update my profile so you will know where I 'm as well and updating my story ideas (1st chapter)

AN2: I don't own game of Thrones or A song of Ice and Fire. I don't gain any money from wriiting this. I do this for entertainment only.

AN3: This fanfic was inspired by the Son of the seven Kingdom by RantingRyuu728. It will be severely different. he made it into a high fantasy setting which i want to avoid. There will be a very slight Wicther crossover but mostly just names.

AN4: I know that most of these fics will never be finished (hell, most likely don't get a second chapter) so if anyone want to write something similiar or continue it feel free after PM-ing me!

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**Chapter I**

Orys Baratheon, Prince of the Seven Kingdoms gazed over the North surrounding him. The small patches of snow on the ground, the large trees of the Wolfwood and the mountains over the forest.

It was not even half a year since Orys have last seen the North. On his tenth nameday his father decided to have him fostered at Winterfell, the home of Robert closest friend Ned Stark. Orys's mother, Queen Cersei was against it, but Robert could be stubborn as a mule when he was in the mood. And he was most of the times.

After being away for four years he returned to King's Landing. He could hardly settled back in the South when Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King died. Orys liked the old Lord of the Vale. He was a father figure in Robert's life and was akin to a grandfather or uncle in Orys's own. He mourned his passing more than most at the court.

With one of the only man he ever respected being dead Robert could only think the other man as the next Hand, Ned Stark. Orys found it a smart and stupid move at the same time. There was no question about Lord Stark's honor, but Orys knew the Lord of Winterfell and he was not ready for the snake pit King's Landing was. He decided when he first heard of the possibility of Lord Stark being the new Hand to help him when he could.

"Orys are you listening to me?" Came the voice of one Robert Baratheon, First of his name, King of the Seven Kingdoms as he rode next to his second son.

"I'm sorry, father. I was remembering my time in the North." Orys apologized with an embarrassed smile. Usually he was observant enough to notice if someone asked him something.

"Aye. I did as well, when I visited the Vale a few years ago." Robert laughed, his booming voice carrying far easily, "Oh, how I want those years back! I was young and strong, boy. You can't imagine how strong..."

Orys heard this more often than not. His father loved talking about the past, be it battles, whores or his mischief-making with Lord Stark in his youth. Orys only cared about the later. Whores didn't piqued his interest in the slightest. He found the thought of a woman needing to sell her body for coins disgusting. Not that he didn't know that most didn't had any choice.

His father's battle tales were often grand tales, but after a while it always turned to Rhaegar Targaryen and the battle at the Trident. It was a bittersweet memory he could tell. His father hated no man more than Rhaegar, yet even if the Targaryen prince was killed and the war ended with his victory, his reward was only a throne but not the queen Robert wanted.

Orys glanced at the large carriage behind them by about a hundred yards. They were separated by at least a hundred rider as well. He knew that his sibling were in there with their mother. Queen Cersei Lannister was one of the most beautiful woman in the Realm, yet Robert's love for Lyanna Stark never wavered.

"What did you ask me?" Orys asked before his father could start one of his tales.

"Ah, yes, I wanted to ask if you want to ride for Winterfell with me? Let's just leave this idiotic parade and go there! I haven't met Ned in years!"

"I understand your feelings, father." Oryss glanced back again at the carriage, "But I fear that mother would have our heads on spikes if we didn't follow proper protocol."

"The f'cking gods give me patience with that woman!" Robert cursed, heaving before nodding, "Alright , give your mother what she wants, I have no patience to deal with her today. And if she really wants to do this way than tell Joffrey to get in the saddle as well." He turned to one of the Kingsguard behind them, by coincidence the Queen's brother Jamie Lannister being it, "Tell her that if she don't want me to race Orys here to Winterfell, than Joffrey better get out of that blasted carriage."

"I Orys go, father." Orys said, before Jamie could reply. The prince knew how much his uncle hated when Robert used him as a courier to bring bad news to his mother. Being a mediator between his family members was Orys main activity these days. His uncle gave him a barely noticeable nod, while Robert grunted.

Orys led his horse to the edge of the road, looking at the riders passing by as he waited to her mother's carriage to pull by. First came the rest of the Kingsguards, arguably the greatest a most skilled knights in the entire Realm. Maybe when the likes of Ser Gerold Hightower and Ser Arthur Dayne were alive. Now? It was only Ser Barristan Selmy and Ser Jaime, Orys's uncle who uphold the reputation, both being called the finest swordsman in the Realm.

Then came a group of warriors sworn to Orys himself along with a few advisors to the young lord. They were members of the Grey Warden. It was an ancient order, destroyed by the Mad King and restored by Orys.

First was the Grandmaster of the Order, Catherina the Queen of Swords. She was a cold beauty, with golden hair reaching the small of her back, her eyes a piercing set of ice. Ser Barristan granted her moniker after being bested by her.

Next to her rode her second in command Master Gareth. He was a quiet man, more inclined to just watch an argument than to voice his own thoughts unless necessary or prompted to.

Then came a trio of younger men, Coen, Lambert and Tristan, all around twenty namedays. They were all handsome and skilled with the sword, but arrogance often reared its ugly head with them. Thankfully either Elaine or Gareth was there to teach them a lesson in humility.

They were followed by the twins, Ser Emrys and Ser Amrys of House Swann. They were older than the trio by a few namedays, but that doesn't showed. They enjoyed playing with people using that they were near identical.

Last of the Order was Zoltan Chivay, a middle aged man, with great thirst for women and wine. He wasn't taller than most men, but was so muscular that some member of the Order wondered if he could match the Hound or even the Mountain. He was bald except a single line of hair in the middle of his head, with a thick beard. He was one of the few of the Order who favored warhammers and greataxes to swords.

Behind those warrior rode two, a lady dressed in green and gold and a man wearing a simple brown tunic and cloak. The man was the oldest of the entire royal party with a graying beard and hair well past his prime being nearly twice as old as Catherina. Officially he was Orys's personal maester.

Triss Merigold was a woman of nearly unmatched beauty and grace. Long waves of chestnut hair fell to her shoulder and down to her cleavage, her green eyes glinting with mischief as she rode past Orys, winking at the prince. Orys still flushed much to her amusement even as it was years since she first teased him. It seemed a favored pastime of hers.

Then came a dozen or so knight in Lannister and Baratheon color. The first two fixed their eyes on Triss. Orys decided not to call them on it. Triss undoubtedly knew the stares on her ass and could do something about it if she wanted.

At last, his mother great carriage arrived. It was pulled by six white horse. He trot next to it and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" came the old voice of Septa Eglantine as she pulled away the curtain of one of the carriage's windows, "My prince!"

"I want to speak with my mother, Septa Eglantine." Oryss said, knowing that everyone Orys hear him.

"Orys? What can I do for you? Do you want to ride with us?" Cersei was next to the window a few second later, looking at her son with worry in her eyes.

"We Orys be at Winterfell in a hours mother." Orys said, "Father said that Joffrey should ride with us when we arrive. If he doesn't he says he Orys ride there alone not waiting for the others." The young Baratheon tried to beg with his eyes. He truly didn't want to arrive at the capital of the North with his father and mother both angry. He wasn't a fool to think that their entire stay Orys be pleasant, but wanted his father and Lord Stark reunion to be a peaceful.

"I see. Joffrey, love, I think you should abide to your father's wish." Cersei seemed to at least understand a part of his plea.

"Why should I? I don't want to ride now." came Joffrey bored voice.

"You Orys be the king, darling. Kings ride into their towns. It Orys be good to remind these people who Orys be their king one day." If nothing else Cersei knew how to influence Joffrey.

"Well, at least they Orys see the crown-prince, not just my brother." Joffrey said. Orys could imagine the nasty smirk on his face just by the voice.

"Joffrey, Orys is your brother." the queen reprimanded her eldest.

"Of course, mother. I only wanted to say that my brother was there for four year. The northerners surely know him well enough." Joffrey defended himself. Everyone could see it as the lie it was, but none wanted to argue at this point.

The carriage stopped and soon the entire royal party followed until Joffrey was up on his horse. Joffrey and Orys were like day and night. Orys was tall, muscled from his regular sword training with dark hair and blue eyes. He was said to be the near replica of the young Robert Baratheon, though the King said that he would be more handsome than him with a laugh. Joffrey had far less of the King inside him. He looked like a Lannister with his blond hair and pale green eyes.

Sandor Cleanage, the Hound, Joffrey's sworn-shield followed him. The Hound was an immense man, easily above six feet. One side of his face was horribly burned, making him twice as fearsome as he should look. Despite of being rumored to be just as good at battle as he was fearsome he wasn't a knight.

"Orys?" Now there was Myrcella, Orys little sister. She was only two-and-ten nameday old, yet showed the signs of the beauty she Orys once be. Orys already knew that there would be dozens proposal to their father for her hands, even if she wasn't a princess.

"Yes, Myrcella?" He asked gently. He knew that Joffrey was often cruel to Myrcella and Tommen, the youngest of them, but his mother's presence should have curbed most of it. Never the less he also knew that

"Was it here where you fought the wildings?"

"No dear sister. It was named the Second Battle of Long Lake for a reason." Orys smiled down at her gently, "It is still a hundred or so miles north to Winterfell itself."

"Could you tell me of it?"

"Mother said you two shouldn't hear that tale, little sister." Orys replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Please? I want to hear it! Mother," she turned towards Cersei pleading with her, "I want to hear about Orys's victory!" The queen looked at her daughter eager eyes then her youngest son's. She sighed before nodded her head.

"I suppose you are old enough for it. You heard your father's tale of the Battle of the Trident already, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Orys was surprised that her mother agreed to it. Usually she was so protective of them. Too protective some would say, but never to her face. No men dared to anger Queen Cersei save for her father, Tywin Lannister, Lord of the Westernland and her husband, King Robert.

So, with heavy hearth Orys started recounting the tale of his first battle.

_Eight moons before before_

"My prince, my lord!" Robb Stark and Orys stopped their spar as both turned to the approaching Maester Luwin. The training yard was empty save for them, Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy. Usually Rodrik Cassel would be there to oversee their training, but he accompanied Lord Stark, who was away meeting with the Lord of White Harbor. The old man stopped in front of them, giving a quick bow to both before speaking up, " A letter sent from the Wall."

He handed it to Robb, who carefully read over it. Orys's curiosity only grew as the older boy's eyes widened in disbelief. The two other Jon and Theon ran to their side with the same feeling written on their faces.

"What does it say, Robb?" Orys asked.

"A Wilding army passed the Wall."

"So? Send out some riders to deal with them." Theon said with a shrug.

"It isn't as simple as that!" Robb replied, "They are at least twenty thousands strong, maybe more."

"That's impossible!" Jon said, "We would have known if there was a King-beyong-the-Wall."

"Maybe. Maybe not." Orys said, "The Night Watch is a shadow of its former self, even with the Grey Warden aiding them now. More important is how we should deal with it."

"You, my prince. Lord Stark..."

"My father isn't here, Measter Luwin." Robb said. Lord Stark was away meeting Lord Manderly over the matters of the newly built fleet of the North, "We Orys need to call the banners."

"And the legions." Orys added. The legions were the start of the Royal Army that King Robert envisioned, made reality by his son. "The two legion should be enough against twenty thousands wildings."

"I hope you two don't think of leaving us behind." Jon said to them as Theon nodded from the side. Orys looked at his three friend in front of him. All of them were older than him, but he could see the fear in their eyes, the same he felt.

"Maester Luwin, please write to the Night Watch. I want to know everything about the wildings leader and how they usually fight."

"At once, my prince." The older man immediately left to do so. Robb sighed as soon as he was out of earshot.

"I can't believe we Orys going out to fight with an army of wildings."

"Do you feel fear, young Stark?" Came a female voice behind them. Turning towards her they realized it was only Catherina. Robb was silent for a moment before nodding his head slightly. The swordswoman looked at each of them before speaking up again.

"It's good." Causing the four young men to look at her taken back. They expected some kind of reassurance or scolding for fearing the upcoming battle. The Grandmaster just sent a slight smile at them, "Only a fool wouldn't feel fear at facing an army. In a duel you can meassure your opponent. In a battle? Everything could happen. Some Orys hide their fear, some try to conquer them and a few master it."

"Mastering your fear?" Jon asked puzzled at the thought of that. The three other leaned forward as well.

"Of course. Fear is nothing more than a natural response of your mind when your body is in danger." Catherina shrugged, "You need complete mastery of yourself if you want that. Knowing what you can and can't do. It is one of the hardest thing you can do." She turned to Orys, "I Orys inform my Battle-Brothers and -Sister of this development." With a small bow she also left the trading yard.

Orys looked around the command tent. There were Lord Umbert and Lord Karstark with some lesser lords and knights along with Marshall Alistair Mormont of the First Legion and Marshall Edric Rivers of the Second. Of course Robb, Theon, Jon and Catherina stood beside him.

"We have two legion, twenty thousand man with two thousand riders of House Umber and Karstark." Orys started the meeting, "We face at least just as many wildings."

"We would have more men if you didn't send our men on foot to the west, boy." Greatjon Umber was a bear of a man, both in size and manner. He looked at the young lord with his dark eyes, "I say this: we shouldn't follow a boy who is not even half my age."

"If you want you can leave Lord Umber." Orys replied, as he quieted down both Robb and Marshall Dan, both looking eager to tear the Lord Umber a new one, "We can win without you. If you feel no need for you to be here then leave." He said gesturing towards the entrance, "But if you stay I expect you to follow my orders."

Orys was tall and powerful lad for his four-and-ten namedays, nut compared to the Lord Umber he seemed as much the young boy as he was. Greatjon looked at him for a minute before throwing his head back with laughter.

"Haha! The young stag sure has his fury!" He clasped his large hand down on Orys's shoulder nearly causing him to be headbutt the table in front of him, "Alright, boy! Tell me your battle plan!"

"Thank you Lord Umber." Orys said as he pointed at the Long Lake, "The troops are at Last Hearth because the enemy could change its course and attack it. I won't allow more people to die because of them."

"What's your battle plan, my prince?" Rickard Karstark asked.

"From what the Lord Commander could tell me, these wildings don't have much tactics or strategy. Tough it has been many years that anyone fought an army of them." Orys replied, "The two legions Orys defend this hill. " He pointed at a point on the map, "The wildings Orys most likely just charge at them. When the time right our cavalry Orys attack their flank along with the cavalry of the legion."

"Won't they expect something like that?" Marshall Edrick asked. Both he and Derick Dan was dressed in the regular armor of the soldiers of the legions. A chain-mail with an almain rivet over it with a simple helmet. His commanding rank was showed by the golden shoulder plate.

"Foot soldiers at worst." Orys replied, "From what I heard they don't have horses over the Wall. I don't know if they could even survive there. They don't know what is a cavalry charge let alone to be used against them."

The wildings horde appeared at the edge of the forest looking at the plain before them. It was a mile or so before the ground started to rise into a small hill. On there stood twenty thousands men and women in neat order.

It may discouraged the levies of the southern lords, but for them it mattered little, least to their leader. He was a large men wearing furs and bones, with a steel sword in his hands. He lead them on without hesitation and they followed him.

The legion watched the approaching army motionless. Jon stood next to Marshall Alistair with the first regiment of the first legion in the armor of the legion, but declined the use of spear that all soldier used.

"Twenty thousands? I think they might be twice as many as that!" Jon said to the man next to him. Alistair was tall man with brownish red hair similar to Robb's and goatee.

"No, not that many, but they are more than thirty thousands." Alistair replied. The walking army stopped at about three and half hundred yards away. There was silence for a moment before they started shouting and stomping. The soldiers didn't moved. The leader held up his fist. The horde fell silent within a minute. Them he thrust the fist forward and the army of wildings started charging at them.

"Shield wall!" Alistair shouted, which was picked up the different captains of the regiments. The soldier at the front put their shield up and thrust their spears forward the ones behind them preparing for the impact also. "Archer! Fire!"

Each legion had nine hundred archers, six longbows and three crosbowman. Nearly two thousand arrow flew into the charging enemy behind the heavy infantry of the regiments. Hundreds fell instantly and three other wave came before the wildings were able to reach the front lines.

The clash was nothing the front regiments couldn't handle. The wildings tried to push forward but found unable to break through the regiments line. They were ferocious warriors, but both in discipline and equipment fall short compared to the regiments.

That was when with a loud yell more than two thousands rider of the legions appeared at the left flank of the enemy with the northern cavalry appearing out the forest about five hundred yard or so to their right.

The wildings were overcame by fear they tried to run far from the cavalry charge, clashing with their own comrades.

For Orys it was a blur he slashed and thrust his sword at the wildings. The first, the second... after a while he knew not how many he had slain. That was until one of the wildings' spear connected with his chest unsaddling him.

There was a faint pain at his right side but nothing more as he laid on the ground. The wilding, after the first hit, was encouraged by this. He was just a boy who laid there as if waiting someone to thrust him through with a spear. Maybe he thought he dealt a fatal blow already to Orys, maybe he hurried before the young prince got up. He jumped next to the boy with his stone spear high in the air. What he didn't except from Orys to thrust his sword at him. The wilding essentially run into his blade.

Standing Orys looked over the battlefield. The legions started their attack as soon as the cavalry charge was seen. He could see Theon and Jon fighting two of the better equipped wildings, most likely lesser leaders. Zoltan was near them, six body around him and fighting two other at the same time. Robb was still on his horse fighting beside Lord Umber and Karstark.

It was when Orys noticed one of the wildings looking at him, Rattleshirt. The two leader met each other at halfway their swords meeting with a clear clang. The Lord of Bones was taller than him, but Orys was by no mean weak. The man was wild, slashing at Orys's direction, his stance and grip on his sword was that of an amateur. Well, there wasn't many fencing coach over the Wall to teach every single chieftain. But that 'amateur' survived many fights to command such host, while Orys had his first duel to death that moment.

Orys faked a strike at Rattleshirt right side but with a half circle aimed at his left. The wildings battle instincts were honed by countless fights. He stepped back and slid Orys's blade away with his own, then tried to elbow the younger man in the face. Orys turned around to the left using his momentum from his strike.

Both toke a few steps back, eyeing the other warily. Orys knew that the man would be the toughest son of a bitch in the entire horde just not how much. The Lord of Bones obviously thought that a Kneeler couldn't put up a hard fight let alone one so young.

They charged at each other their blade meeting at every turn. That was when the Lord of Bones sliped on the wet ground. Orys quickly thrust his sword at his opponent. A moment later he felt pain errupt from his side. Looking at it he saw Rattleshirt's blade halfway into his mail. Turning his gaze was captured by the unseeing pale gray of his enemy. It was the first time he saw the face of those he killed so close he could see their eyes.

His strike easily cut through the fur and bones Rattleshirt wore.


	11. A song of ice and suns

**AN1:This chapter was inspired by stratomuchkin's work on deviantart. (I got his permission to write the fic based on his pics.)**

**AN2: This isn't rally sci-fi, more like space-fantasy. At least several aspect of it won't be explained in the typical sci-fi maner.**

**AN3: Before anyone start of the whole meele weapon argument: the armors too good compared to most ranged (personal) weapons.**

**AN4: I don't own any material used to make this fanfic, aside my OCs and storyline of my own design etc.**

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**Chapter I**

_To the North_

The North was the largest planet in the entire realm and the most far off. A large white and blue globe at the edge of the star system. Dorne was scorching hot and dry, the Stormland full of furious tempests, the Vale hard and unforgiving, but the North was considered the harshest place to live in all the Seven Kingdoms.

The space far from even the moons of the North, Skagos, Skane, Bear, Barrowton, Weeping Orb and the Wolfmoon, ripped open as a fleet of warships. At the front the K_ing's Robert Hammer_, or as most called the _Hammer_, a grand cruiser the flagship of the Royal Fleet, the sigil of the Baratheon house borne on its side. Just as the near two dozen lesser vessels which accompanied it.

William Baratheon, Prince of the Seven Kingdoms opened his eyes as he felt the _Hammer_ the flagship of the Royal Fleet reenter real space. It was unmistakeable, the slight preassure on the back of his head disappearing as the vibrations of the engines emerged. Meaning that they were near to the North.

It was not even half a year since Will have last seen the North. On his tenth nameday his father decided to have him fostered at Winterfell, the home of Robert closest friend Ned Stark. William's mother, Queen Cersei was against it, but Robert could be stubborn as a mule when he was in the mood. And he was most of the times.

After being away for four years William returned to King's Landing just after his four and tenth nameday. He could hardly settled back in the South when Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King died. Will liked the old Lord of the Vale. He was a father figure in Robert's life and was akin to a grandfather or uncle in William's own. His only living grandparent was Lord Tywin Lannister and he saw the man only twice in his life, not remembering the first at all as it happened not long after he born. Lord Arryn was the one who tried to guide Will as his father showed scant of interest in Will's life aside of hunting and fighting. Will mourned the Lord Hand's passing more than most at the court.

With one of the only man he ever respected being dead Robert could only think the other man as the next Hand, Ned Stark. William found it a smart and stupid move at the same time. Indeed there was no question about Lord Stark's honor or loyalty, but Will knew the Lord of Winterfell and he was not ready for the snake pit King's Landing was. He decided when he first heard of the possibility of Lord Stark being the new Hand to help him whenever and whereever he could.

Will looked around. He was seated in one of the chairs in his suite. It was lavish with a large bed, easily enough for a grown man and two paramour with a bathroom attached to the room.

It seemed that he fall asleep reading one of the tomes maester Gareth provided him. It was about the Blackfyre rebelion and while he found it fascinating he was so worn out that ended up falling into slumber.

"My prince..." Came the voice of his faithful guardian, Catherina the Queen of Swords, Grandmaster, of the Order of the Dragon. She was a cold beauty, with golden hair reaching the small of her back, her eyes a piercing set of ice. Long legs, muscular, yet feminime body lusted after by nearly any men who laid eyes on it.

Some would say that she was only there for Will's lust. Any who were brave and foolish enough to do so in her face were challenged and beaten. Ser Barristan himself granted her the moniker: Queen of Swords after their only spar ending in a drawn.

"Catherina." William greeted her back, a half smile on his face. The grandmaster's stoic face softened slightly.

"We will arrive in a few hours. You may wish to ready yourself." Will got to his feet with a knew that his mother wouldn't be pleased if he wasn't on his best meeting the sigh escaped his lips as he turned to the bathroom door tugging his black tunic off. He jumped slightly as he felt Catherina delicate hands on his shoulder helping him.

"I can do it myself, thank you."

"Don't need any help with washing your back?" Catherina asked with only the shade of smile on her face. William felt a shiver running through his back.

"N-no, thanks."Will cursed at himself for shuttering. He steeled himself before turning towards his bodyguard, "You spend too much time with Triss, Cath."

"I will inform her of your compliment." The woman nodded, a smirk playing on her mouth, slipping out of the room, not waiting for the indigant reply, that Will absolutely had no need for anybody to encourage Triss. The woman seemed delightened enough already to tease him in the most creative and not so creative way imagineable.

A few minutes later he entered the training chamber a deck under the living suits of the ladies and room was large with dias on all side, the arena, a rectangular shape of ten meter on the side, in the middle . The chamber was abadoned save only a handful people. In the arena Ser Barristan Selmy and Ser Jaime Lannister, both of the kingsguard and called the finest knight of the Kingdom, fought. For a moment Will could only watch as the two legendary knight clashed their weapons a blur.

"You clean up nicely, Prince William." A melodic voice greeted him from the side. Turning to it he came face-to-face with Triss Merigold, his advisor. She was a woman of nearly unmatched beauty and grace. Long waves of chestnut hair fell to her shoulder and down to her cleavage, her golden flecked green eyes glinting with mischief, her hourglass figure clad in green and gold robe showing her body to the world. Behind her Catherina watched the duel with her arms crossed not even glancing at Will. On her other side stood a few other members of the Order.

Then came a trio of younger men, Coen, Lambert and Tristan, all around twenty namedays. They were all handsome and skilled with the sword, but arrogance often reared its ugly head with them. Thankfully either Cath or other senior members were there to teach them a lesson in humility.

They were followed by the twins, Ser Emrys and Ser Amrys of House Swann. They were older than the trio by a few namedays, but that doesn't showed. They enjoyed playing with people using the fact that they were near identical.

Last of the Order was Zoltan Chivay, a middle aged man, with great thirst for women and wine. He wasn't taller than most men, but was so muscular that some member of the Order wondered if he could match the Hound or even the Mountain. He was bald except a single line of red hair in the middle of his head, with a thick beard. He was one of the few of the Order who favored warhammers and greataxes to swords.

Triss looked William over approvingly. He wore a simple tunic of the Baratheon colors, black leather with golden trim. A simple sword was strapped to his waist along with a needler pistol. He was taking after his father, tall and muscular, nearing six feet at the age of fourteen. His raven black locks reached the nap of his neck, while his shapphire blue eyes gazed at Triss' form for a moment.

"Thank you, Triss." Will replied at last, "Your beauty is as otutworldly as always."

"My, my." Triss giggled amusedly, "When Cath said you wanted me to join you in the showers I didn't believe her. Mayhaps I should have."

"Maybe, you should have." Will allowed causing Triss face to transform into utter disbelief. Triss eyes grew wide before seeing the smile that broke out on his face. She let out a short laugh.

"Finally! I thought you will never respond to our teasing!" Triss was delightened, Will could tell, before the woman added " I wondered if you wanted _men_ to tease you instead..."

"I assure you my interests are far from that." William replied cooly, forcing his anger down at hearing that accusation even if jest.

"Oh, I knew." Triss waved her hand, not being done by a longshot "I mean you looked at us for a long time, "She indicated towards Cath, "As a dog smelling a bitch in heat..." William could feel his face flushing. He knew that it was wrong to just stare at women, but couldn't help it!

"In my defence both of you are gorgeous." He hastily explained, forgetting that his beautiful advisor was obviously teasing him..

"Don't worry, you obviously felt ashamed about it." Triss waved his concerns away again, though she couldn't help but add, "Not to mention it was adorable."

Will bite back his respond, knowing that it would just make things worse, deciding to watch the duel instead. Only to find it finished by the time his conservation with Triss was over. The two swordmen, alrady taking their practise swords to their place, were walking towards the exit, straight at William.

"Nephew! How nice to see you!" Ser Jaime clapped William on the shoulder with a wide smile on his face. Will often wondered how could Jaime smile so often, "I hoped we could spar with each other."

"Spar? You would defeat me in a minute, uncle." Will replied. He was talented with the sword no doubt about that, but Jaime Lannister wasn't known as the best swordman in the Seven Kingdoms for nothing. "Beside, Ser Barristan is more adequate opponent for you." Ser Barristan stood beside his brother-in-arms. His age didn't touched his statue. He still stood tall and proud as the Commander of the Kingsguard. " Everyone knows that you two are the finest with the sword in the entire Realm. Well, aside of Cath." Ser Barristan bowed a bit at the praise, but Jaime just scoffed at it, eager to challenge the woman. Yet everytime he did so the leader of Will's guards declined him.

"Good for you to mention that, Will. I'm eager to cross blades with that Grandmaster of yours."

"I'm afraid it will have to wait a bit, uncle. We are close to the North and mother will want all of us to be prepared for when the Starks greet us." Will reminded his uncle.

"Aye." Jaime nodded at that before sniffing himself, "I suppose I do need a bath."

"Good. I will go and inform mother of our arrival." The prince turned around and went back to the same deck he came from, with the two swordmen following him. The Kingsguards had their quarters next to the Royal family: easier to defend being their reasoning.

The two older men left Will in front of the door to the Queen's quarters. In front of it stood Ser Meryn Trant as the guard for the Queen. The knight only nodded at his sworn brothers, who walked past the door, both returning the gesture.

"I'm here to see my mother." Will said to the tall man wearing the golden armor of the Kingsguard. The armor which was said to be nearly inpenetrable by any weapon be it a gun or sword. The man nodded before gently knocking on the door leading inside. After a few seconds one of his mother's handmaiden opened it looking at the knight questioningly, who only nodded to the prince.

The royal handmaidens all came from Minor Houses. They were mostly there to entertain them, be courier and spy for them, along with forming the complex hair-does too hard for a common girl. Not to mention it presented an opportunity as the Queen could suggest marriages, resolving tension between the vassals. Not to mention that the handmaidens themselves hoped to catch the interest of a young noble.

She was Annabell of House Oakshield, a Minor Noble House from the Stormland. She was only a few years older than Will. She was lovely with her dark brown hair and chocolate eyes. The girl gave a proper curtsey to Will.

"Annabell, could you inform my mother that I would like to see her?"

"At once my prince." The girl curtseyed again. As she closed the door. Will could hear as she announced his arrival and his mother voice, eager to see him. The door opened again as 'Bell gestured for him to come inside.

"William! I hoped you would be joining us before arriving at Winterfell." Her mother greeted him. She was laying leisurly on a long chair, like the lioness some liked to compare her to, her mane of golden hair in an elaborate style. Her forest green eyes looked at him with love as she smiled at him. Not those false smile she offered to anyone not of the family. It was a true smile, born from love. It made her truly beautiful.

Will looked around. Myrcilla, his little sister of ten and two sat next to her mother, on the left. Even being that young her future beauty was undeniable. Will knew that in only a few years ther will be a flock of marriage proposals for her hand. Myrcella sent a happy smile to her brother.

To her left sat Septa Eglantine, the princess personal tutor. Will didn't like the old woman much: she was sour and stiff. Thankfully he didn't have much contact with her. Behind than stood the three handmaidens, two for the Queen and one for the princess.

"We will be at Winterfell in a hour mother." William informed them, "I thought I should inform you about it."

"Thank you, love." Cersei nodded to him as she gestured him to the chair on her right. After her son was seated she asked him, "Will, could you please tell me what you know about Sansa Stark?"

Will could feel as his eyes widening. He didn't think that his mother knew the name of any of the Stark children. Robb's maybe as he fought the wildings with the eldest. But Sansa?

"She is Lord Stark's older daughter. She takes after Lady Catelyn. Her spte only has good things to say about her."

"I hear that she is quite lovely."

"Undoubtely." Will replied, "Truthfully I feel that she may be able to challenge you as the most beautiful woman in the Realm a decade from now, mother." Maybe even sooner, but there was no need to say that. Cersei let out a soft laugh hearing Will compliment.

"Thank you, dear. It warms my heath to know that you find me fair."

"Only a blind man wouldn't do." Will replied. It was true. You could say a great many things about Queen Cersei, but not being beautiful wasn't one of them.

"I can only thank the gods that the only thing you learned from the Imp is his clever tongue." Cersei muttered. Will winced at that. His uncle and mother's relationship was... antagonistic. And neither liked to talk about the other. Will quickly tried to lead the conservation back to Sansa. The young girl was a far safer topic after all.

"Mother, if I may ask: why are you interested in Sansa?"

"Your father wants to unite the Starks and the royal line." She replied with a small grimace, "Ilast time I heard he planned to have this Sansa and Joffrey wed."

Joffrey and William were like day and night. William was tall, muscled from his regular sword training with dark hair and blue eyes. He was said to be the near replica of the young Robert Baratheon, though the King said that he would be more handsome than him with a laugh. Joffrey had far less of the King inside him, taking after Uncle Jaime. He looked just like a Lannister with his blond hair and pale green eyes.

But most of all they were different on the inside. Joffrey was an arrogant piece of shit, who liked to lord over others while doing absolutely nothing. While Will liked to work hard for his archivements. It maybe came from the different upbringing the two had. Both were princes, btu Joffrey was taught only by maester Pycelle and Jaime as ordered by their mother. Meanwhile Will was taught by a myriad of different people.

"Would you marry the Stark girl, William?" Cersei suddenly asked.

"I don't love her, mother." Will responded truthfully, "But I know my duty to my family."

"I see." The Queen fall silent, clearly thinking how she could prevent Joffrey being married. For some reason she always cared more for Joffrey than all her other children together.

"Will?" Myrcella asked him softly.

"Yes, Myrcella?" He asked gently. He knew that Joffrey was often cruel to Myrcella and Tommen, the youngest of them, never in the presence of their mother of course.

"Can you tell me about the North?"

"It is a wilderness, darling." Their mother interrupted them, "Don't bother with it." Will mouthed _"I will tell you later."_ to his little sister, who nodded back. It wasn't the first occasion they had to talk about something outside their mother's earshot.

"Then maybe about Lady Sansa and Arya?"

As Will predicted their arrived at White Harbor the massive space station above the North. It had enough space for their entire fleet to dock. What they didn't except to see the Stark's ancient dreadnaught, the _Fang_ out in space. The massive warship was ttwo and half times larger than the _Hammer, _reaching nearly a mile in length.

The dreadnaughts were the largest vessel in the known history. The secret of their built was lost in the ages, resulting only a handful remaining, each Great House having one. They were invaluable relics of the past. Of course Will had to plead with his father not to use the _Fury_ in their voyage to the North.

After docking Lord Manderly personally greeted them, but Will's father wasn't in the mood to tarry longer. Not half an hour latter their shuttle was on its way to Winterfell, the seat of House Stark.

It was spent in utter silence. His father obviously couldn't wait to see his best friend. His mother wanted to be back at King's Landing. Joffrey stood beside their mother with a sneer on his face. Tommen and Myrcella softly spoke, but Will was surprised they could hear each other. The Kingsguard, the members of Order and the Hound were around them.

His spirit was lifted as he saw the figures at the landing zone. It seemed that the entire household was out there to greet them. Lord Stark kneeled immediately as the King stepped out the shuttle. his household following him.

Will himself followed his father far more gracefully with Joffrey at his side. His father quickly marched up to Lord Stark not even pausing let alone waiting as the Queen and their two youngest along with the septa appeared to exit the shuttle.

The king stopped about a feet from Ned's kneeling form indicating with his hand that he can stand. The Lord of Winterfell did so, just as the others a moment later. The two old friends looked at each other. Lord Stark couldn't help but be horrified at seeing Robert in such state.

"_Even with Will saying it I can hardly believe what I see. Sure, it was four years since Will have seen his father so ... I would have never thought. How could he let himself become this?" _Ned thought. The Robert Baratheon in front of him was a shadow of the friend he parted at the end of the Greyjoy Rebellion. The king was still stood tall, taller than Lord Stark, who wasn't a short man himself. But his strenght, once feared in the entire realm, turned into fat. Robert now had a large beard conceiling his second chin, his tunic was nearly ripped open by his large belly. Even his eyes were less vibrant than during the Rebellion.

"Your grace." Ned bowed to his king.

"You got fat."

Those three words were clearly heard by all in the silent courtyard. Robb, next to his father looked like someone slapped him, hard, while Will decided to be amused at his father bluntness. Ned himself responded by clearly looking down at the king's much more noticable belly then quirking an eyebrow at him. They stood there for a silent moment before they started laughing, embracing as brothers did dispelling any tension in the courtyard.

"Cat!" The king hugged Lady Stark as well, while ruffling little Rickon's head before turning back to Lord Stark. Lady Stark was beautiful, even with the North marking her years more than those in the South. Her red hair didn't start to grey yet, her blue eyes still shone bright.

"Your grace."

"Nine years. It's been nine years. Where the hell have you been?" Robert turned towards Ned.

"Guarding the North for you, your grace. Winterfell is yours." Robert nodded at hearing it halfheartedly, clearly not that interested in Ned respectful words. His friend was much more too formal for their first meeting in years!

"What do we have 'ere?" He walked down the line. There was Robb, the Stark heir. He was tall, reaching his father height, but with his mother hair more prominent. He clapsed forearm with the king. Robert nodded in satisfaction.

"Robb, right? You have a strong grip, lad. I heard that you fought beside my son, Will. It's good to hear that the alliance between our Houses hold true."

Taking another step he looked at Sansa, the second oldest of the Stark children. She was the same age as Will, her figure just starting to shape into a woman yet none could deny it. Will didn't lie when he said that in n a few years her beauty will match that of the queen's.

"What a beauty."

Sansa preened under the king's gaze, but Robert just smiled once more before stepping to the next person. He felt silent as he took in the form of one Arya Stark.

"What's your name?"

"Arya."

He nodded, but said nothing as he stepped to the last person, Bran. Bran was the second youngest, ten namedays.

"Show me some muscle!" Robert laughed at Bran showing off his arm. Will, standing back had to bite back his own laughter smiling at it. Bran was the least suited for fighting among the Stark sons. Robb was good with the sword even more if he was in the cockpit of a fighter. Rickon was a wild little thing, who reminded Lord Stark of his own brother, Brandon, an excellent swordman. Bran? He was the smartest of the bunch, not really fit for fighting, "Ha, you will be a knight surely! Maybe even one of the Kingsguard, eh?"

He stepped back and looked at Ned, who just greeted Cersei with a kiss on the hand. The king wasn't in the mood for pleasantries however.

"Ned, lead me to the crypt. I want to pay my respect."

"We have been on the voyage for a month, my love." Cersei said softly, "Surely, the dead can wait."

"Ned!" Robert didn't moved a muscle to acknowledge his wife's words as he turned to the door leading to the undercroft of the castle. Ned hesitated for a moment before bowing apologetically to tzhe Queen and taking after the king.

Will stepped forward in hopes to easy everyone out the tense mood his father departure left them in. He kissed the back of Lady Stark's hand, an aunt in all but blood, embraced Robb his brother while meeting Jon's and Theon's eyes. They both nodded at him, clearly reading his vox-message to them. He couldn't greet them, a Greyjoy and a bastard, his mother would have his head for it.

He kissed Sansa's hand, who returned his smile, but her gaze was on Joffrey the entire time. Will could feel the headache coming. Sansa refused to either hear or believe his tales of Joffrey's cruelty. He decided to direct her towards Myrcella, to guide the princess at Winterfell.

He did the same with Tommen and Bran. Neither boy had much interaction with others their age, let alone friends. Will tried to spend as much time as he could with Bran, but the agegap was a bit too much for them. In contrast Tommen was a prince. Most would just turn out to be using him and his status, never being a true friend. Will felt that Bran was one of the few who would.

And them he arrived in front of his favourite person in Winterfell. Arya looked at him with a little smile. Will just shook his head before opening his arms. Arya launched herself at him with a laugh.

"Have I ever told you how much I missed you, ?"

"Good." Arya murmured next to his ears, "I missed you too, silly stag."

Will laughed out at this, not noticing the enraged gaze of her mother and brother, nor the smiles worn by both Robert and Ned, who just arrived back to the courtyard. For Will it mattered little. He was back with his friends.

Little did he knew that the coming days would define their future.


	12. 12 Black sails

**Chapter I**

_The warlock captain_

Eleanor Guthrie was a woman who knew what she wanted. A woman who knew her strength and weakness. When someone wanted to deal directly with pirates it was needed. If not them the person would soon find himself (or herself as was it in her case) at the bottom of the bay. When her father left her to be the one to do so in his stead, while he managed the family business from his manor on Harbour Island, even he doubted she would be able to grow up to the task.

She surprised him and most of the captains. She was clever, quickly learning how to take care of herself. Only a few months had to pass before it became apparent that the young lady will stay and be the connection between those on Nassau and Lord Guthrie.

Eleanor looked out the window of her cool office inside the bar she partly owned to the outside. The window left her a perfect view of the bay. More than dozen pirate vessel anchored out there, from the smaller schooner to large brigs, largest being the Ranger, the ship of Charles Vane.

She had to force her grimace down as her former lover came into her mind seeing his ship. She truly would rather left him where he belonged: in the past. Thankfully, a ship, even larger than the Ranger captured her interest: the Marauder, a thirty two gun frigate once in the service of England now in the hands of Captain Harry Potter.

That man was a mystery. No one could tell why a man as young, handsome and obviously well learned as he was would choose the life of a pirate. Many whispered that he was once a promising officer in the Royal Navy and the Marauder wasn't stolen from the original crew, but they rather deserted under his command. Others said that he was the son of a noble who wanted adventure. A few that he was an outlaw before setting sail in the first place.

No one knew the truth for certain, but Eleanor had only seen three pirates his father have spoken with respect: Benjamin Hornigold, James Flint and Hadrian Potter. Before she could immerse herself in her hobby of trying to solve the Captain of the Marauder there was three soft knock on the door.

"Yes?"

"Ma'am." Mr. Scott, her right-hand man came inside. He was a tall man of African descent. Dark skin, black, curly hair and brown eyes. Some may think his kind lesser than their own, but Eleanor loved the man, after all the man practically raised her himself in place of her father. "The Marauder is in the bay."

"Thank you, Mr. Scott, but I'm aware of their return myself." She replied gesturing outside. Her aide only glanced at the view before returning his gaze to her.

"They say he gone after a high prize. Again."

"Which will bring us profit."

"No doubt." Mr. Scott allowed. "But do remember Eleanor that he is only here for a year, maybe even less."

"And?"

"And he made the right decisions. All of them. He is our most profitable source. Even without this voyage he made more than six thousands dollar this month." Mr. Scott took a deep breath in. "I like Captain Potter, as much as I can a pirate, but something is up. He gained too much power too quickly."

"Let me guess. Hornigold or Vane will move against him." Eleanor said, her hands laid gently in her lap.

"Hornigold is the more likely. Vane is a savage, but he respect Potter as much as the next man." Eleanor had to give him that. Vane was what he was, but he respected power and straight men both which Potter was. "Hornigold on the other hand is vary of him. It is no secret that Potter has several plantation and even a connection to the Guild."

The Weasley Merchant Guild or the Guild as most called it, was the only merchant company beside her father who made trade on the island. His father allowed it both because of blackmail and reason. Blackmail because the Company could easily inform Lord Ashe of her father business. Reason because the Company only wanted to trade some of the legal goods while his father could keep his share from the pirates' work.

"Hornigold likes to think himself as the protector of Nassau." Eleanor replied. "He only refrain from calling himself governor because his own men would kill him if he do."

"Perhaps ma'am. Still Potter is clearly aiming to be the first among equals. His name alone calls the same respect that of Captain Hornigold's or Vane's or Flint's."

"Which should be enough for others not to cause trouble. Everyone knows that neither me nor my father likes trouble on the island."

"Aye. And when will he feel that he can move against you?" Mr. Scott asked. The man cared little for pirates. The young lady however was entirely different matter. However Eleanor just snorted at his suggestion.

"Harry was nothing but courteous to me, which is much more than I can say from the other bastards out there. He may have some connection to the Guild, but I know he didn't violated the agreement between them and my father."

"I'm just worried my lady." Mr. Scott hesitated for a second before continued. "I know he intriques you ma'am, but that man is dangerous."

"I know. All the men worth looking at on this island are dangerous." Eleanor replied. "You are worried for the wrong reasons. Harry and his crew caused the least amount of trouble. Compared to Vane or Bellamy it's practically nothing!"

"I... Just please promise me that you will be careful." Mr. Scott was familiar with that look on the young lady's face. She was as stubborn as they came.

"I will be."

There was another knock on her door, this time much louder. At her nod Mr Scott opened the door. On the other side stood Edward Brown, one of her bodyguards. He was a tall, shoulder length brown hair and eyes, fairly attractive. His best attribute however was his complete loyalty towards Eleanor.

"Ma'am. Captain Potter is here to speak with you." Mr. Scott and Eleanor exchanged glances. Edward wasn't stupid or blind. "Shall I remain here, ma'am?"

"Thank you Mr. Brown, but that won't be necessary. Please send in the Captain."

Edward just nodded before allowing the man behind him entrance. That was another thing she liked about him: he knew when to speak and to remain silent.

The man stepping inside was a tall and handsome. Black hair in a low ponytail, a barely noticable stubble and emerald eyes. He wore simple clothes. A pair of boots, trouser and shirt. On his belt a simple cutlass. As far as Eleanor cared he looked exactly as a pirate should. Yet everyone could tell that he was no ordinary pirate. He had a presence around him, causing nearly all to be on their toes around him.

"Captain Potter. Please take a seat." Eleanor greeted the man as she gestured to the chair in front of her desk.

"Ms. Guthrie, Mr. Scott." His voice was low and husky . Eleanor had to force down the shudder as those emerald eyes gazed deeply in her own grey eyes.

"I hope your travel was fruitfull."

"I believe it was. By my estimation we should get from about eighteen hundred to two thousand dollar for what we have." The man replied as he helped himself from the jug of water on the table. "Of course your men will have to look at it to see if I'm right, but Mr. Thomas agreed with my numbers."

"I'm a bit surprised that you could get that much out of one ship." Eleanor liked the man, but she was sceptical about the amount he claimed he made. They were business partner first and foremost, and in business ripping the other off was everyday occurance.

"Two actually." Harry replied. "On the way back we run across a small spanish merchant ship. It didn't have the best cargo but it was easy prey and what we got should worth a few hundreds at least. My men started to bring the loot ashore by the way."

"I will go and see to it, ma'am." Mr. Scott stood from the table to the side. He moved there when Harry came into the room and carefully watched the two. He was as much of an aide as a bodyguard.

"Thank you." He only nodded at hearing it. The man knew that Eleanor next words would be an order to do just that anyway.

"Ma'am. Captain."

"Mr. Scoot." Harry waited until he was out of the door before focusing on Eleanor again. "I heard Edward before I came in. If you have a problem with me you can tell me Ms. Guthrie."

"Eleanor, Harry." The young woman dropped the formal form. She couldn't be like this when Mr. Scott was around. If she was the man would be obligaed to report it to her father, who clearly disapproved it. With her ordering to the dock to oversee the loot Harry made Mr. Scoot could claim he didn't know about it. They never spoke about it and wanted to keep it that way. "And no there is no problem. At least in my opinion."

"And Mr. Scott?"

"He is worried how will Hornigold react to your success." Eleanor replied with a half truth. "He is very proud after all and you are starting to become legendary."

"Don't jest Eleanor." Harry shook his head. "Mr. Scott could care less about Hornigold or any pirate. His main concern is you." She didn't reply. There was nothing she could sayt to challenge that sentence. Both knew the truth. "It's about my own business with the Guild isn't it?"

"Yes."

"He doesn't have to worry about it. I only do it so I can reitre from this life once." Harry assured her, causing her to raise an eyebrow in response. At least her hunch that the man like him had a plan for the future was true.

"From what I know you could already retire as you say and live a fairly comfortable life."

"Not everything is about money, Eleanor." Harry replied after a moment. "I want a stable Nassau, just like you. Something that Flint can be a danger of."

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you noticed something strange about the ships he lately targeted?"

"They are of no great value." She replied confusedly. "What of it?"

"Flint would never go after ships like that. That I know at least." Eleanor had to admit that the last three-four ships Flint attacked were unusual. The pirate captain was still as daring as he first set sail, she could see it in his eyes, yet seemed to settle for small preys. "What you probably don't know is that all of them were member of a small merchant guild based in Santo Domingo. Fairly unremarkable, barely making any profit."

"So?"

"That guild is nothing more than a disguise. Only the captains and the those above them know the truth: it is a way for the spanish to take important messages between the continent and the colony." Eleanor looked at him unimpressed.

"You want me to believe this?"

"Think for a minute Eleanor. Why would someone like Flint go after those ships, barely making any profit and risking mutiny? He can barely control his crew already from what I heard." Eleanor looked at him. He was serious she realized and after thinking it through she had to admit it added up. But still...

"If what you say is true than your question can be asked as well. Information can be important, but simple messages? Why would Flint bother with it?"

"Simple." Harry answered, leaning forward. "Those messages contain the rout of some of the most important ships for the Spanish Crown. One of those ships could easily make up the last two month in the eyes of his crew."

Eleanor easily pieced it together. It wasn't that hard in truth, but in her defense she didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to attempt it. It was a suicide even for someone like Flint.

"A treasure ship."

"Yes." Harry nodded, taking a sip of water. "I don't know which one but Flint is insane enough to try one of the larger one." He let out a laugh. "Hornigold is vary of me, you say? What will he think of Flint I wonder?"

"Harry that is huge with that money all of our problems could be solved!" Eleanor decided to ignore his comment about Hornigold even if it was true. If it was true then they could gain more than one million dollar. If there was something her fater taught her was that money was power. And one million dollar was a lot of money.

"True." Harry admited. "But it would also make a shit load of trouble as well. What do you think the Spanish will do when they learn that their gold is on an English island."

"We could make this work." Eleanor replied, her mind already set to plan her moves. "If Flint can convince one of the three captain to help him." She replied looking at Harry. "Only you, Hornigold and Vane have the ship to partner with to undertake something like this."

"If he doesn't want three ships." Harry said, causing both to snort. Flint wouldn't partner up with anyone unless something forced him to. After their amusement died down Harry turned serious. "I will be his last resort. My ship is bigger and thus I can ask for a larger share from the loot. Vane and him never seen eye to eye. So that leaves Hornigold."

"Mr. Gates was on his ship before Flint. Hornigold may allow him to captain the Royal Lion for the attack." Eleanor mussed. "I suppose that's it them."

"Of course all of it just a guess." Harry admited. "I have nothing to prove it, aside of the connection between the ships and that it goes against what I think is Flint's personality. It just as likely that Flint is getting old and takes it easy."

"You don't believe that more than me." Harry just shrugged in response.

"No. But Flint should arrive soon from his last hunt and we will know more." He stood up. "Well, I will take my leave then. We don't want rumors flying around about us." Eleanor grimaced.

"Half the island thinks we fuck every single time we meet."

"Then it doesn't matter if we do?" Harry asked with a rougish grin as he turned and left the room. His grin widened as he heard his cup being thrown at the doors. What he didn't know was Eleanor smile as she sat back down.

The sun settled for hours when Harry heard a knock on his door. He was one of the few captains who had a real house, even if a small one, and not just tents set up as a home. It was on the other side of the bay, opposite to the fort. Behind it was one of his plantations.

Openning the door he was mildly surprised to see Eleanor standing outside with her lips bruised. He stepped to the side allowing her inside.

"Who was the idiot who hit you?" He gently touched her cheek a finger grazing the small wound on her lips, before starting to search for something to help her.

"Vane." She replied reluctantly as she sat down in a chair, causing him to whip his head towards her.

"Vane? I know he is hotheaded but I thought he has more sense than this. When your father hears about..."

"I started it."

"What?" Harry settled for a bottle of whiskey as the best option. He quickly poured to both her and him a shot. "Why the fuck did you do that?"

"He or his men killed Mosiah and one of his man." Harry winced. He couldn't claim to know the man well, but Mosiah was well respected all around the island.

"Why?"

"Mr. Gates was able to get them to support Flint. Singleton reacted as he always does." Eleanor replied. "What I don't know why the fuck Vane support that bastard?"

"Maybe money. A share from the first haul." Harry guessed with a shrug. "It doesn't matter. Singleton is an idiot savage. Any ship he commands is fucked."

"I had enough about them for now." Eleanor said. "I just wabónted to let you know that Flint met with my father. Maybe he wants his support?"

"Yeah, I heard about it too." Harry nodded. "I can't imagine your father ever aiding something like that."

"True. Well, "She got up. "I think I will visit Max."

"Don't want to hear Mr. Scott's scolding?"

Only a glare and a little smile were his answers. He poured another shot. Tomorrow will be bound to be interesting.


	13. Emerald Wizard

**AN1: Warhammer Fantasy AU: Greenskins have females and less savage as in canon.**

**AN2: I have 10.000+ words for the third chapter of Heralds of the new Age, but I stil have at least 2000 to write for it and rewrite the dialogues.**

**AN3: Constructive rewrites are welcome, but flames and screams for shaming the 'Fluff' aren't welcome!**

**Chapter I:**

_A new world_

Eric Strock, once a proud member of the Gold Order, the alchemists of the Empire of Man stared at the man in front of him. This wasn't what supposed to happen. He carefully prepared for the ritual, slowly manipulating the arcane point.

The arcane point was one of the largest reason he came here. Arcane points were invisible points in the material world where the magical power concentrated. If one was able to use even a portion of those points he or she would able to use magic well beyond his or her initial abilities.

The reason of him seeking out such area was a duel with the apprentice of his rival in the Gold Order. The young man, who barely passed his twentieth nameday overheard Eric speaking ill of his master. In the following argument the older wizard lost his cool and agreed to a duel with the youth, only to be defeated by his hands in less than five minutes.

Not being able to endure the humiliation of losing a magical duel to a far younger wizard he left Altdorf to what once was Solland. There he tried to gain more power and knowledge for the sake of restoring his position within the Order.

Solland was nearly destroyed more than five centuries ago by a Chaos Incursion. When the fight ended most of Solland was given to the orc tribes helping the Empire, save for the Imperial city of Meissen. Those still alive being resettled in Wissenland, making it one of the most heavily populated area in the Empire.

Eric always thought it was folly to give the those barbarians land, ancient land belonging to the Empire since its foundation. But now, nearly a year after he came to these lands he had to admit it was far easier for him to conduct his experiments with the orcs ruling it. He only had to give them a few pounds of fine steel, one thing he had talent for, and the orcs gladly left him to his own designs in the abandoned Cathedral of Sigmar in the ruin of what was once one of the smaller towns in the region.

Only a few moons passed and his fortune seemed to turn around. It happened when a lady, so gorgeous he couldn't tore his gaze away from her form, arrived asking for lodging. He readily agreed and on the first night the lady came to his room to 'repay his kindness'.

In a short time she became everything to him. Nothing mattered but her. Sixty-two years passed since he came to this world, nearly fifty of those in the Gold Order, yet it was nary but a shadow in the past.

So when she asked him to worship the Chaos Gods he agreed after only a moment of hesitation. But seeing the hurt on her face as he hesitated for that moment caused more pain than the humiliation by the apprentice of his arch rival nearly a year ago.

After the first daemon was summoned everything became clear. Maria, the woman he loved with all his heart was the Masque of Slaanesh, once a favored daemonette of the Dark Mistress who was now in the service Tzeencth. Eric didn't care at this point truth be told. Maria gave him more pleasure and changed his life more than anything.

In short order the two set up a small portal to the realm of Chaos allowing numerous imps and dozens of lesser demons to gather in the Cathedral and the fort it resided in. Only two moons later hundreds of black orcs, the corrupted forms of orcs, arrived with a few chaos warriors leading them with the order to make a portal large and powerful enough for one of the greater daemons of Tzeencth to be summoned.

The preparations were large and time consuming even with him working on it hours in the night upon Maria's insistence. It was no easy task to summon a Lord of Change into the material world, let alone without alerting the nearby orc tribes or those in Altdorf. The arcane powers released by it could very well reveal them in the instant the daemon arrived. In fact it was a bit of a surprise that the orc shamans didn't felt the lesser demons. But again, those savages could never hope to reach the level of a wizard of mankind, let alone one who served the Raven God.

The problems started the day before. A few of the black orcs and imps went out to scout the nearby area and stumbled upon a female orc on the hunt. They captured her at the cost of a dozen of their own, a small price to pay in Eric opinion. After all the black orcs were nothing but slaves to Chaos. But the tribes will learn of their existence and with the largest tribe this side of the World Edge Mountain, the tribe of Gorrad Bloodaxe only a day of march away he didn't had much time left.

So he left the orcess in the 'tender' care of Maria while he conducted the ritual. His partner didn't know he advanced the time for the summoning, but the daemonette wanted them to be absolutely sure of its success. Eric however was sure of his abilities. With the power and knowledge given by the Raven God he couldn't fall!

Yet, when the summoning ended in the place of one of the most powerful servants of his god stood a tall man with emerald eyes flashing dangerously as he leveled his gaze on the sight before him.

Harry James Potter scowled at his surrounding. It was a chamber easily large enough to house thousands of people. It greatly resembled a cathedral with large frescos, sculptures of men and woman. Behind Harry where he couldn't see stood a statue of a warrior-king twice as large as a man.

The entire place was in ruin. Most of the walls have parts missing, from a few bricks to the size of a door. The floor also had several holes and craters as far as he could see. The wind on the back of his neck told him that at least one window was broken aside the one made out of stained glass on his right.

What had him scowling was the fact that the human wizard who summoned him out of the daemonic realm was surrounded by dozens of lesser demons, maybe even a hundred and two knights in black plate armor with blue trim had dark magic rolling off them in waves. Harry had no mercy in his heart for those who sold his (or her) soul to daemons. And this man before him obviously did.

The demon summoner wore a lavish black robe made out of velvet, a steel staff with a lead ball at the end in his hand. On his finger was a golden ring. His once brown eyes, now a medley of brown, green and blue usually alight with greed, widened in surprise.

Not allowing enough time to the warlock to regain his wits Harry struck immediately. His sword slashed across the other man throat ripping it open. The man let out a horrible gurgle even as he fell to the floor, while his blood flown into a large puddle around him.

Harry always wanted to learn more about swords after his second year, but thanks to his 'adventures' he never had any time to delve deeper in the subject until he finished his magical education (well, at least the institutional one). His study in runes and their applications in medieval warfare lead him back to swords and martial arts in general. Both area which he thrown himself into.

The two warrior of chaos reacted immediately one was armed with a large, two handed sword while the other with two battleaxes. The one with the greatsword leaped forward bringing down the sword where Harry stood with speed belied by his large frame. Harry quickly leaped back while conjuring a spear of rock and hurling it at the armor wearing giant. The spear however didn't pierce the chest of his enemy as he thought it would only causing it to step back.

Admittedly it wasn't of the best material and neither was he at full power, but it showed one of the problems with conjuration. No matter how good you were at it the quality will always fall short of the real thing unless you put an extremely large amount of magic into the spells. Only after truly starting to use them in battle did he learn it and finding a much deeper respect for McGonagall whom dueled mainly using those and transfiguration.

He quickly conjured half a dozen lions to distract the enemy along with sending a _blasting curse_ at the imps nearing him, causing them to disappeared in a ball of fire. It seemed the lesser daemons didn't had the same protection the two warrior had.

"_It's most likely the armor they wear. Either magical protection or reinforcements. Magical protection more likely as the reinforcement needed would be too heavy to be useful unless they are way more powerful than I believe them to be."_ Harry deduced with a grimace. He wasn't in the best shape before he was even summoned and didn't look forward to the battle.

He sent another blasting curse at the imps on his left side while conjuring another dozen wolves and a warrior standing ten feet tall made out of rock, wielding an obsidian sword to deal with the remaining imps. The wolves will engage them while the the golem will slowly kill them all. Harry very much doubted that the imps would be able to do anything against it.

The warriors meanwhile still fought with the lions. The one with the greatsword had one on his back , but the other was just about to kill the another one remaining with a swing of his left hand. Harry sent a cutting curse at the hand which barely made made any damage in the armored gloves the warrior wore. With a mental command Harry had the lion joining the other in harassing the second warrior.

Harry now tried another approach: a silver arrow shaped spell to the chest. The warrior seemed surprised for some reason or another at the spell, but he cared not of it. The spell worked far better than the spear as it clearly destroyed the plate armor and the flesh behind. To be fair the spell was powered enough to blast through a boar, yet only managed to pierce his enemy removing a hefty chunk of flesh from his torso. The warrior tried to stay standing but Harry would have none of it. With three quick step he was in front of the man, grasping his rune sword in two hands and thrusting it into his heart.

He had to quickly pull the sword out as an imp charged at him. The daemon did try to evade his sword but it was pitiful at best. A mere moment later it was dead at Harry's feet. Looking around he could see that most of the wolves he made disappeared, though most of the imps seemed to realize that they weren't enough to bring down either him or his golem.

That was when the other warrior attacked him. Only his quick reflex saved him as he locked blades with the imposing man. His earlier thoughts were proven true about their armor as he was able to mach the strength behind the blow, even if barely. The next blow was defended even easier as the warrior started to get angrier and angrier at being unable to kill the wizard in front of him.

That was when he stepped into a puddle of water on the floor a sign of the rain yesterday and the hole in the roof. Harry didn't waste any time: he froze the water causing the warrior to lose his footing. The man went down with a curse in a language Harry didn't know, but he understood the gits of it. Without mercy or a thought of fair fight he decapitated the man. He was fairly sure that the man before him wasn't very familiar either conception. Beside...

"_Only a fool would miss an opportunity like this."_ Harry learned the hard way that most of the times you had to forget anything about being fair while on the battlefield. Mercy and honor were two things he valued greatly, but wouldn't except from those in the room. Daemons were notoriously dishonorable and daemon worshipers weren't any better in his experience.

Now he was alone in the room with only the golem standing in the doorway. On the floor laid the wizard who summoned him, the two warriors and at least fifty imps. Thanks to the battle the already worn down building gained a few dozen new battle scars.

Now that the battle was down Harry could think about where he was. If he didn't know any better he would think he was somewhere in Europe. The cathedral was near identical to those on the continent even if larger than most. Looking behind himself he came across the statue of the warrior-king in front of the broken stained glass window dominating the back of the building. He was in full plate armor with a mighty hammer in his hand. Harry was sure that no temple had anything like this statue in them in Europe.

Glancing back at the ritual circle he destroyed nearly two moons worth of work. He had no desire to see any more daemon than necessary. He turned to the doorway reading himself for battle. Placing a hand on the golem he allowed his magic to flow into it, repairing and strengthening what he could. He cursed at the his lack of potions as he could use some of them against fatigue.

Allowing himself to rest for a minute or two he stepped out the door with the golem at his side. The sun was high in the sky allowing him too see clearly. He stood on a hill, in a small fort or something. The cathedral itself was on a slope of the hill along with the keep on its right. The walls of the fort had several holes in them and the building inside the fort didn't looked much better. The only exception was the keep itself, which still seemed mostly habitable. Outside the walls laid a small, deserted town in the same or even worse state than the keep itself. Tens of steps lead down to a large square with half a statue in the middle.

A square which was a rallying point of the daemons and their servants. Another ten warrior in plate armor, hundreds of lesser daemons and black humanoids. Harry would call them orc, but from what he knew orcs should be green. Their skin was pure ebony, most stood as tall as a man with blood red eyes and large tusk jutting out of their mouth. They wore crude black armor, nowhere near the quality of the warriors, with most wielding a slightly curved one edge sword.

After a moment of silence one of the black orcs bellowed and the horde started to climb the steps towards Harry. The wizard looked on the approaching mass with disdain as he sent one blasting curse after the other. When the first opponent reached him at least half of his attackers were dead including two of the warriors.

Harry stepped back conjuring a great steel ball, as tall as he was and sent it down the steps. Some were able to get out of the way, but most were too surprised to do anything but scream even as the ball crushed them. Two other warrior died to the ball and another as he tried to destroy the golem in face to face battle.

The remaining thirty or so imps and orcs was cut down mercilessly as they tried to retreat to the square where the reserve waited watching the death of their comrade indifferently. They didn't move either to advance or to retreat.

Harry and the golem slowly walked down the steps allowing Harry to rest a bit. Truth be told the conjuration of the ball and the golem took an effort even from him.

When he came across the enemy about fifteen yard away the warrior in the middle spoke up, the first time one tried to speak with him.

"Wizard, I'm the servant of Tzeencth, the Raven God. Our lord would gladly welcome one such as you in his service." His voice was deep and rumbling as he and the others watched Harry carefully, who shrugged in response.

"Sorry, but it has been years since I followed anyone and I don't see why I should start again now."

Before the warrior or any of them tried to offer him this or that the black orcs surged forward roaring out battle cries. Harry cast two cutting curse at them reducing their number greatly as the spell severed limbs, carved through armor and sliced into flesh. With a mental command the golem marched towards the five warrior. The imps stayed behind a group of twenty or so pink skinned daemons. They had great jaws, three or four arms and powerful legs. As their own wave met with the golem Harry noticed that the imps seemed to breathe fire, but paid little to no mind after seeing it had no effect whatsoever on the golem.

Harry focus turned to the warrior who avoided the golem going to the side and straight at him. At least this one was smart enough to use a shield not that it mattered much. A blasting curse to the feet toppled him and silver arrow finished him off.

As the others were busy with his golem, deciding, for some reason or another, that it was more dangerous than the wizard who summoned it was. Harry quickly cast a spell to tell if there were more enemies. The spell worked like a sonar for most part and thankfully was both widespread and powerful enough while didn't add too much of his magical fatigue. A dozen or so orcs, a fairly powerful daemon and a few lesser resided in the dungeons below the main hold to his right, but aside of them it seemed their entire force assembled in the courtyard. With a simple gesture of his left hand the golem disappeared causing the thirty or so remaining enemies to turn towards Harry.

"_Igni Draconis!_" Or in English: _dragonfire_. One of the strongest fire-based spell in Harry's repertoire. It was a jet of flame, hot enough to melt steel sustained by his magic. Most of his enemy died near instantly. Only the two chaos warriors lived through but a pair of overpowered cutting curses ended them as well.

Harry sighed. If only he was truly rested! Now however he had to go to the keep clean it out, place an anti demon rune over the cathedral where he appeared, even if only a minor one and then most likely had to sleep for a long time after he finished.

Casting again the magical sonar he was surprised that those in the keep didn't move. It was as if they either didn't heard the battle, thought it was just a scuffle within their own force or decided to barricade themselves deep down.

He slowly walked into the keep, the large oak door slightly ajar, not that it was in the condition to stop him. The inside of the keep was only a little bit better than the outside. A few chairs and table was up but more were in pieces. The door leading to the dungeon was easily found to the right to the entrance.

Taking the torch out of the cresset he went down the narrow steps leading down. He could use the_ lumos_ spell but decided to save as much of his magical energy as he could. Reaching the bottom of the stair he looked around. He was in a wide, dark hallway, at least compared to the stairs where only one man could go at a time. On both sides there were cells one after another, each able to contain five-six men at once without trouble. He had no doubt that there was time when dozen men was throw into each of them.

So he was truly in the dungeons. Lovely. He slowly walked forward with only his torch providing light. The hallway ended in a set of heavy doors not thirty yards away from the stairs. Deciding against using magic to open the door he opted to use his right hand. To his minor surprise the door opened without trouble even if it let out a little creak.

It was a larger circular chamber alight with torches on the wall a few feet apart. On the far side there was a table and a brazier beside each other. There were a dozen and half of black orcs and the lesser daemons at the walls looking at the middle of the chamber before Harry opened the door. In the middle a daemonette stood over a prisoner who had her feet chained to the ground while her arms were puled angularly to the walls with another set of chains. The prisoner was bared to the world, her clothes and equipment on the table, save for a fang on a leather cord.

Harry was surprised because the female definitely was an orc. She skin tone however was entirely different compared to the rest he had seen: she was emerald green instead of the ebony black. Even with her on her knees he could see that she was tall and extremely fit. Her entire body was filled with sleek muscles. Her long legs leading to a generous hip and a fabulous booty. A strip of black hair above the petals of her womanhood. Her abs could be clearly seen, all six packs well defined. Her breasts were only a little more than handful tipped with a shade or two darker nipples. Her face was delicate, framed by her silky, long, black hair which reached the small of her back. Her nose small, just as her tusks, which poked only an inch or so out her plump lips. Her hazel eyes looked at him in open wonder.

The daemonette behind her was also beautiful, in fact for most she was most likely more appealing than the orcess. She greatly resembled Fleur Delacour with blonde hair, pale skin and blue eyes. Even her haughty expression wasn't unfamiliar on her face. Yet, her eyes was anything, but Fleur's: this woman was consumed by lust and greed. She was clad in leather dominatrix clothes, high boots and whip and all that thing.

Only a moment passed as Harry took in the room before the black ors on either side of the door attacked him. Harry quickly sidestepped the one on his right and thrust the torch in his hand into the orc's mouth muffling the war cry it bellowed. The attack was blocked with his sword as he quickly drew it. The orc clearly expected the human unable to mach his strength. With a simple twist of his wrist Harry redirected the orc's sword and with a quick slash following from down to up he opened its belly.

He sent a fireball to a group of two of the pink daemons, an imp and three orcs consuming them before they had time to do anything. Next he conjured a shield to intercept a swing from another orc with a mace. The orc was thrown back with a loud ringing sound. A moment later Harry's sword flashed and the orc's head flew apart the body. Harry sent a cutting curse at the pink daemon charging at him nearly bisecting it. With a wave of his hand he sent a blasting curse at one of the remaining two orcs hitting it squarely in the chest. The upper half of its body blew back painting the wall beside them into blood, bones and wame. The other orc tried to make a run for it but Harry sent a cutting curse at his back. He had no mercy for that thing.

The daemonette looked on as the very handsome human wizard destroyed her underlings in a matter of seconds. Eric started to grow out his usefulness and this man would be much better for her plans. Not only was he far more powerful than her newest toy, but far more handsome and young.

"Welcome young wizard." She purred to him. "I can see your power. The Raven God..."

"Sorry." Harry interrupted in a voice that clearly showed how unapologetic he truly was. "The guys upstairs tried that one already."

"Upstairs?" The daemonette repeated, deciding to look over the sheer gall of this mortal to interrupt her. "What do you mean?"

"You know the army of daemons and orcs, I guess, on the fort." Harry shrugged. "They weren't very welcoming let me tell you. I had to correct that."

Maria, as Eric know her narrowed her eyes. She thought he was alone and came under stealth to rescue the orc as a favor for one of the tribes, but he spoke like he battled the army in the fort.

"Are you saying that you defeated my army? All **alone**?" She asked causing the man to shrug his shoulder.

"Yes, they weren't that good at strategy, charging at me like that to overpower me. And as you can see... " He gestured to the door and the hallway beyond it. "I am alone."

"_Of course they did that." _Maria thought as she quickly tried to formulate a plan to survive the day._ "Against a lone wizard it is the best you can do. They can't just keep casting spells one after another, even the best of the high elves need time to rest a bit now and them. That army wasn't the largest or the most diverse, but to fight and defeat it alone is a great accomplishment none the less." _The army was there to fight the orcs in the land and not a wizard. _"Should I try to seduce him to my side?" _She had no doubt that she was much more qualified to do so than those he spoke before. But again surviving was her top priority.

"Look stranger, we don't need to fight, right? I will leave the orc here for you, alright?" Seeing that Harry blank face she upped the ante. "And if you want I can provide with some... comfort shall we say?" It wouldn't be the first time she fucked someone for survival or duty, the last being Eric, and at least this one was handsome.

Harry glanced down the prisoner who's eyes were wide with fear. Looking at the daemonette his face hardened. At least this one wasn't stupid: at the sight of his face she leapt back at once, her whip striking at him. The problem was that it wasn't one made for being used in battle. It was pure leather without even a steel hook at the end. Harry's rune sword easily cut through it leaving the daemonette defenseless.

With surprising speed she dashed to the door only to be caught by the roots growing from the ground. She looked at the wizard in front of her hatefully, her face transforming into something terrible. Her tongue elongated her eyes turned purple and horns started to grow on her head. With a single motion the roots turned into spikes piercing her body. The daemonette barely had time to scream before she died.

Slowly turning towards the prisoner Harry could see her hopeful expression. Then in a soft voice she said one word.

"Help."

Shaerra Stormborn cursed herself every minute since the moment she woke up finding herself in a cell, bare as the day she was born, chained to the floor and walls. After testing their strength a few times she knew that escape won't be possible on her own. And as she lived far from her clan for nearly five moons she doubted anyone would look for her in the near future.

She was out hunting her meal when the black orcs attacked. The memories were foggy but she was sure that at least some of them won't hurt anyone again.

At first she panicked. She heard tales of what became of those females captured by those fool creatures. Breeders, raped constantly until they got heavy with their spawns and after they were big enough to live without their bearer the circle continued.

She sent a silent thankful prayer to Rhya, the Earth Mother, that she wasn't violated in her deep sleep. Her relief however was short lived as a daemonette stepped inside her cell with more than a dozen black orcs and lesser daemons at her heel. It was clear why wasn't she raped: the daemonette wanted the honor of breaking her. She sent a defiant glare at the thing which seemed to amuse it greatly.

At first the daemonette just walked around her, describing in great length how will the torture go. Shaerra couldn't keep her pride on leash as she kept talking back to the daemonette. She knew she only made her torture that more painful, daemons particularly liked strong willed victims, but couldn't help herself.

The loathsome daemon only just grabbed her whip for some light 'fun' as she called it before the door opened. At first Shaerra thought that the human was the sorcerer she heard the daemonette mention earlier.

He was tall for a human, about the same height of the average male of her race, even if much less bulky. He wore well made, but strange clothes. His handsome face was a frozen mask as he regarded the creatures around him. When his emerald eyes looked at her Shaerra felt herself blush a little. It felt like that gaze reached the deepest parts of her soul. His gaze quickly run over her bare body and she was proud of the small flicker of lust that lighted up in them. She didn't mind being nude in front of him, though she knew that mankind for most part had very different view on it than her own people.

After the moment their eyes met the battle began. She felt her loins heat up at the sight of him single handedly destroying her captors. Strength and power were always a turn-on for orcs. And other races as well apparently as she heard the daemonette's deep breaths.

When the daemonette made her offer she felt a brief surge of panic. But the man stayed true, by the Beyond he didn't seem even tempted to take up the daemonette offer! Shaerra felt a new kind of respect for the man. Killing half and a dozen black orcs and lesser daemons was one thing. A male refusing when a daemonette offered herself up? That was another thing entirely. Daemonettes were known to be able to transfix, but those with the most powerful of wills.

When the daemonette was dealt with Shaerra could feel her hope rising, though she tired to rein it in. She knew that aside of those in Meissen most men in the Empire consider her people to be simple barbarians.

"Help." She herself was a bit surprised at her voice. She didn't mean to plea with her rescuer! But the man cared little of her show of weakness as he waved his arms at her chains and they, one after another let loose.

When the last one fell she tried to stand only to her legs give out under her. The man's arm sneaked around her waist steadying her while her body leaned over his. After a few moments she regained her ability to stand straight and the man immediately let go of her.

She looked at the man in surprise as he took off his cloak and gave it to her. It seemed that he was embarrassed seeing her without anything to cover her skin, despite the fact that he have seen most of it already. Not that it mattered to her, but she put it around her shoulder for his sake.

Stepping to the the table she let out a snarl. Those idiotic savages ruined most of her clothes! It was obvious that they wouldn't care of it as she was to be raped for the rest of her life. Her leather trousers were in tatters, mostly at the hip as they literally cut it off of her. Her fur coat was a bit better but overall in similar condition even if with luck she could salvage something out of it unlike with the trousers. The only two clothes undamaged were her undergarments, and that was only because their string gave away before it could be ripped apart, and her fur boots.

At least her hunting knife and bow along with the quiver and the sheath of the knife were there without anything missing. She would thought they took them away, but again black orcs loathed anything but melee combat and her knife would be akin to a toothpick in their mind.

She quickly slipped into her undergarments, her knife held by the strings of her undergarments and flung the quiver across her back after taking three arrow in her right hand along with the bow.

"Don't worry, there aren't any enemies around." He looked straight into her eyes, in spite of his cloak doing a poor job covering her in her undergarments, his hand out for a shake. Shaerra looked at the arm for a moment before clasping his forearm after taking her bow and the three arrows into her left, pleased that the man realized that she was a warrior as well.

"I Shaerra Stormborn." She wasn't fluent in what men from the Empire called the 'Common' language, but she at least could hold a conservation even if the others in it had to have a very good knowledge of it to understand what she wanted.

"Harry Potter." Harry was glad that the female in front of him spoke English. He had a feeling that it was widely used after both the chaos warrior and the daemonette spoke it. Her forearm shake was a surprise but he shook it off soon enough. "Maybe I can try something about your clothes?"

Shaerra shruged as she stepped to the side as with a flash Harry cast a spell at her clothing only to nothing to happen. The female orc raised an eyebrow at it.

"What should it do?"

"Its name is _reparo_. It repair things if every single part of the object is in the vicinity."

"Ahh." Shaerra nodded along. "It matterz not. I have other home." She started going towards the hallway with a sudden urgency.

"Hey! Wait!" Harry had to jog a bit to catch up to her. "Why the hurry?"

"Aya'tok." She replied without slowing down a bit. "Whitefang. My direwolf. She is great friend."

Harry stayed silent following her up the stairs, never mentioning the fact that he seen nothing looking even vaguely as a wolf. Stepping outside Shaerra eyes widened at the sheer number of dead bodies across the square, but she had more pressing matter to attend.

"Aya'tok!" Her shout could be heard through the small town. And a wolf howled in response from the other side of the keep. Shaerra broke into running as Harry tried to keep up with her. She was only a few inches shorter than him, her long legs carrying her fast and she had a head start.

Coming around the corner he could feel his eyes widening. He was glad that Shaerra was busy with the wolf as he stood there motionless with his jaws near the ground. When Shaerra said direwolf he thought of a wolf that was slightly larger than your regular, run of the hill wolf. What was in a cage was a wolf that was at least as large as a bear if not larger. Her fur was healthy, silverish white, her fangs bone white making him assume the she-orc cleaned the wolf regularly. Her brown, near black eyes looked at her mistress as she whined while pushing her head against the bars.

Slowly he stepped closer drawing the attention of the wolf to him. The beast let out a loud growl as her eyes looked at distrustfully. Shaerra gently stroked her head while saying something to it in another language, Orcish Harry assumed. It was interesting, most word seemed to be made up by two or three syllables and it had a weird, but musical beat to it. After Shaerre motioned that he could come closer he stepped next looking at the lock at the cage. Waving his arm at it the same happened as when he freed Shaerra: with a loud click the gate was unlocked and the wolf was free.

Harry smiled slightly as Shaerra hugged Aya'tok's head, while the wolf nuzzled her. After a moment as they relished that this nightmare was over the two broke apart and looked at the wizard. Harry looked unsure as Shaerra closed the space between them in two steps and hugged him tightly.

"Thankz you!"

"There is nothing to thank me for, Shaerra. I'm glad both of you are alright." Harry replied as he slowly stepped back looking at Aya'tok, whos eyes looked at him with the same gratefulness Shaerra did. _"Not a simple wolf at all."_ Harry thought, before turning back to the orc.

"I want to see if I can set up some wards around the arcane point."

"Wards?"

"Magic protecting an area."

"You are strange wizard, Harry." Shaerra said regarding him with speculative eyes.

"Why would you say that."

"Wizards only have one magic." Shaerra replied simply.

"Truly?" He asked over his shoulder as he went back to the square. It was an interesting information even if he wasn't sure what did she meant exactly. He doubted she meant that a wizard could only use one spell. They had to be way more versatile, so maybe one type of magic? Maybe white and black magic and something in between? That was a possible, but that would mean they categorized magic in a very different way than the wizards on Earth did.

Shaerra's eyes went wide as she truly beheld the massacre that took place here not even twenty minutes ago. She could feel her loins heat up. Magical or not, power was power and females loved powerful males.

"You did this alone?" Now she understood the daemonette's surprise. Seeing Harry nod in response she asked. "How in Taal name do you do this?"

"It wasn't that hard." Harry shrugged. "They just rushed at me as if they could simply overpower me."

"That how you fight mage." Shaerra replied unsurely. That was one of the simplest and most common tactic against wizard that she was taught. Get close, as most didn't know shit about melee combat or overwhelm them with number and kill them when they become tired. The other tactic for regular troops was to have one of them sneak up on the wizards and back stab him or her.

"Maybe others." Harry allowed. He knew nothing how wizards here fought. "But against me it's just stupid." He left it unsaid that it nearly worked. He was exhausted and could only hope that Shaerra was honorable enough to give him shelter.

Stepping into the cathedral Harry went straight where he was summoned. He assumed that the warlock was smart enough to find the center of the arcane point. Looking at the double circle of runes he scowled because while some looked like norse runes most were so different he couldn't know their meaning for sure. He could guess or translate it, but wasn't foolish enough to the former and had no time for the latter.

"What happen here?" Shaerra asked looking around until her eyes rested on the ten feet wide circles of runes. "Is that a summoning circle?"

"Yes. From the size, the double circle and the fact that there is an arcane point I assume they wanted to summon one of the stronger daemons. Unluckily for them they got me instead." Harry murmured the last part, but Shaerra heard it anyway.

"You are summoned?" Her voice wavered a little. The orcess stepped back and her right hand griped her hunting knife so tightly her knuckles turned forest green.

"Yes." Harry sent a reassuring smile over his shoulder. "But you don't have to worry I'm no daemon whatsoever."

"How do I know you not lie?" She asked back looking as he studied the circle. "What do you do?"

"I don't think I can say anything that could convince you. " Harry replied turning back to her. Looking straight in her eyes. "I only ask you to assess me by my actions. I always thought they spoke much clearer than words only."

"True enough I suppose." Shaerra nodded. It was how orcs did it after all. Harry did nothing to cause her to doubt him. Still, he admitted of being summoned. "How could they summon you then?"

"I was trapped on or rather in their plane of existence. " Harry replied with a shrug. Seeing that she had more questions he lifted his hand to stop her. "I will tell you more later if you want but I need to finish this."

"What do you do?" Shaerra asked again stepping closer to him to see his work.

"First I will try to feel out the magic of this place then I will do everything I can so nobody will be able to summon a daemon here."

Harry didn't wait for an answer which was a bit rude, but he wanted to get out of these ruins as fast as possible. He tried to reach out to the arcane point, a place where magic converged, to feel the nature of the magic here. Someone like Dumbledore who had more experience with (and frankly more talent for) magical auras most likely wouldn't even need an arcane point for it.

What Harry found was strange in itself. The magical energies were wild, untamed and uncontrollable compared to what he was accustomed to. He could feel a couple of different types, but he pulled back before anything happened. For all he knew his own magic could react to these: well, winds would be the closest analogy he could come up.

This was similar to what was on Earth eons ago according to some ancient tales. Magic was wild, as dangerous to the wizards using it as to everyone else. Then the shamans from all around the globe cast a spell that fundamentally changed the very nature of magic. It became disciplined, easier to learn, to master, to create. No longer had the wizard have to be careful while looking into a fireplace and trying to get his afternoon tea: his wand won't let out a stream of fire. Thousands upon thousands of new spells were created near literally overnight. Well, that was what legends said.

Harry started to understood why was Shaerra and his enemy that surprised seeing him using all kind of spells. If there was someone who can use different types of magic he had to be much older than him unless the wizard didn't had a death wish. You needed to master any of this kind of magic if you wanted to safely use it.

"_Of course that's only my assumptions." _Harry reminded himself. _"If they somehow found a way to control the flow of magic better than my people it is very possible that there are some wizard using every types of magic." _He looked at the metal staff near the warlock.

"Shaerra." He softly called for the orcess who was looking around without stepping too far away from him, causing her to look at him.

"Yes?"

"How much do you know about magic?" Harry asked. He knew that there was a low chance of her knowing anything he didn't already know, but he had to ask.

"Not much." The female warrior admitted with a grimace, before her face lit up and exclaimed with a grin. "But shaman Chaka will know!"

"Shaman Chaka?" Harry asked back blankly. In his head he fist pumped with a clone of himself. While there was little chance of her knowing anything note whorty, she knowing someone who was better learned in the arcane arts was possibility.

"My clan'... former clan's shaman." Shaerra paused for a moment at the mention of her clan. A hint of dark look passed through her face, but it disappeared before Harry could blink. "He is old. Very old and wise. He will know answers."

"I see." Harry didn't press about her clan even if he was curious about it. It was clearly not something she would want to speak about and it wasn't the best time for him to meddle into someone's affairs. "I would like to ask you a favor Shaerra."

"Yes?" The orcess looked at him with a sincere, if small smile. "You save me. I will help!"

"Thank you." Harry returned her smile with one of his own. He was glad that he had someone who would help him. "I'm exhausted. After I finish this..." He gestured to the runic array. "... can I spend a night or two at your place?"

"Is that it?" Shaerra looked at him genuinely surprised. "You are friend! You can come the time you want!"

"Thank you." Harry repeated. It seems she wasn't as wary of the fact that he was summoned as he thought. Or she just wanted to watch over him. Of course her being grateful for saving her life was just as likely.

"_I truly need to stop looking for hidden meanings all the time." _He thought for himself. He could think about the reasons of why did she allow him spend days in her home later. Now, he needed to focus on the runic array.

Runes were a very interesting types of magic. Basically you wrote instructions down with symbols and when you flood it with magic the procedure you wrote would start. As some runes had different meanings the user intent was a key factor to the usage. As well as the imagination, which the warlock sorely lacked.

Summoning a daemon was forbidden in the wizarding world for a reason.

Even Voldemort and Bellatrix weren't insane enough to attempt it. There just too many ways you can go wrong with it. For one you need to bind the daemon if you want to be sure not to be betrayed at the first turn. Two, you need to stabilize a portal strong and long enough to the daemon to appear in this plane of existence. Three, you need a way to deal with the chaotic magic of the daemons. Granted the second and third point weren't an issue with an arcane point, but those three were just what Harry (a novice in demonology) could name from the top of his head.

But there was no time for him to think about any of it. With a burst of magic he destroyed the runes in the circle. Another burst made a large rune appear in the middle of the former circle. It was in the shape ofa nordic cross, about two feet wide and long. One of the most basic ward, but it had to do. Harry didn't know if he was able to cast any spell without a blackout.

"_I really should have thought out my battle plan before going nearly all out against them." _He thought with a grimace.

"I'm done. It will hold for the time being."

Shaerra nodded as the two turned to the gate of the cathedral. She could see sweat gathering at his brow and him taking deep breaths.

After taking the steps down to the square Aya'tok crouched down allowing Shaerra to get on her. After getting comfortable the orcess looked at Harry. After a moment of hesitation the man accepted Shaerra's arm and flung up beside her.

Harry at first didn't know where to place his hands. He knew how distracting and uncomfortable was when someone placed their hands on their shoulder, but also didn't want to encircle her waist. Shaerra looked over her shoulder impatiently causing him to gingerly place his hands on her hips. The female in front of him rolled her eyes as she grabbed the hands and placed them around her waist, drawing the man to herself until she could fell his chest against her back. Before Harry could form any objection Shaerra said a few words to her wolf causing it to trot from the square.

At the gate of the fort (both wing being broken in,) Harry could clearly see the surrounding area as the fort itself was on a hill. At the foot of the hill was the empty town. To the East he could see a large mountain range going from North-east to South-west, standing only ten or so miles away. In the South the mountains turned to North-west, but that was a couple of dozens miles away. The hills between the two mountain ranges were small and had gently upgrade. There were forests doting the land, but most of it was grassland with groups of trees on them. In the far distance to the West, at the end of his sight, he could barely make out a huge forest. Looking to the north he could see the terrain remaining the same even as it was divided by a great river.

By the time he finished looking at the lands around them Aya'tok took them down on the narrow path leading down from the fort to the empty town.

The town itself was fairly small as far as Harry was concerned. Most houses were either one or two storey high and as far as he could seen apart from the main road the streets were narrow. He couldn't imagine more than five thousands living here.

Aya'tok increased her speed from trotting to running. Only a few minutes later they passed the town gate and the wolf turned to North North-east. Slowly the firs changed to oaks as they got far away from the mountains. After about five miles they had to cross a river at a ford.

Half an hour later they arrived at Shaerra's hut. The walls were made out of wood and the rooftop of reed. To the left side there was a lean-to shed for Aya'tok. A pair of hare fur was strung on a cord between the shed and a tree.

When the wolf stopped Harry slowly slipped down on her side. Seeing how tried he was Shaerra stepped next to him, helping him into the hut. Harry was half asleep by the time he was laid on a bed of furs. Shaerra lifted his head to allow him to drink from the water-skin she get from somewhere on the side. After a few sips he was gently laid back down.

His last memory was Shaerra turning towards the door of the hut before he blacked out.


	14. DxD 1

**AN: I do not own the High School DxD franchise or any part of it. I do not make money from writing ths fanfic in any way, shape or form.**

**AN2: A good portion of this came from **Panther-Strife. **I had some ideas for DxD but nothing that would worth writing down.**

**AN3: It's DxD. As of now there isn't any nudity, but that won't last long.**

Chapter I

Issei Hyoundou looked at the ceiling of his room, laying on top of his bed, deep in thoughts. It was quite early, the sun nowhere near over the horizont. Usually he would be still asleep especially as it was the first day of the school break. Nowadays he had trouble sleeping at all, let alone 'till midday.

He always thought himself more or less average. True, everyone at Kuoh Academy knew him as one of the Perverted Trio, but he was at least open about his feelings. Not to mention with how large percentage of the female student body was simply gorgeous he felt himself justified as a teenager to lust after them.

His first year at the Academy was more or less perfect with his two best buddy, Matsuda and Motohama coming along. He was carefree and thanks to his less than stellar study habits had all the time to peak at the girls.

Not long before the end of his first year however an incident happened tha shook his family to the core. Iseei always knew that he took after his father in regards of his open pervertedness. The difference was that while he was a hormonal teenager his father was an adult man with a wife and kid. Akira Hyoundou was a patient woman, taking her husband lecherousness in stride for years, but the bad influence of it on Issei through the year and his blatant words to his secretary, which were tasteless even by Issei's standard, were too much for her.

They were separated, his dad officially living in an apartment a few blocks away as of two days prior. Issei didn't know when the divorce will be done with, but knew that it was coming. His mother was a wreck, sometimes looking better than he remembered seeing in a long time or worse than ever.

Issei didn't know how to handle the situation. For all his life he had nary a care, nor for his future, nor his family. He loved both his father and mother and his grandparents, but he thought everything was fine. His father had a good job, earning enough for his mother to stay at home with a parttime job as an interior decorator and Issei to buy anything that caught his fancy.

It became clear that maybe not everything was as fine and dandy as he believed them to be. The worst for the teenager was that part of him blamed himself for it. If his mother hadn't had to go to the school a week before after the Perverted Trio peeked on the kendo club again... His mother was adamant that sooner or later the result would have become the same. In the heat of their arguments Takata Hyoundou blurted out the fact that he was fucking his secretary hammering the last nail into the coffin of their marriage. She didn't know of it, but she would have found out of it eventually. She could let a few comments on other women being made in front of her slide. She knew her husband didn't lose his eyes or perverted nature just because he married her. What she couldn't forgive or forget was cheating on her.

At first Issei was appaled by his father actions. Akira Hyoundou was a milf as Matsuda and Motohama liked to tell him. Issei told himself that if he had someone as gorgeous as his mother all to himself he sure as hell wouldn't cheat on her. For Christ's sake they probably wouldn't leave the bedroom for a long time. The only problem was that it was a lie. At least the part of him not cheating on her. At the moment he was just as bad as his father if not even worse.

That revelation was like a punch to his face. He realized something: he needed to change and quickly at that if he wanted to have a meaningful life. Not only for his own sake but for his mother's as well. Not to mention his father last words on the day he left the house.

"From today you are the man of this house, Issei."

It was time he started acting like one.

Thanks to the ridiculous education level, the Academy - all of its divisions - had longer breaks than your average schools. It came at the price of slightly more intense school work all term long, but most of the student body was happy with the arrangement.

This year the break was even longer, two weeks. Issei heard that it was due of renovations, but the simple fact that the new school building was only a little more than ten years old and periodically got high-tech stuff during breaks made it hard to believe. Maybe the old school building that was still standing?

In all honesty he cared very little about it. When he first heard it was because he could have more free time. Now, because it gave him time to get hold of his life.

Issei didn't have much of a plan for it though. After a few minutes he decided to hold off on that front until he had more time to get used to the new situation. He only hoped that helping his mother for the time being would be enough.

For starters, he was out of bed well before his usual time. Despite of that when he came downstairs his mother was already there preparing breakfast.

"Issei... Good morning. I hope I didn't wake you up." She greeted seeing her son.

"No. I just thought it would be nice if I start doing some of the things around." Issei replied a bit uncomfortable. Akira looked at her son in disbelief. She truly loved him, but also knew how lazy he could be. Issei of course understood the meaning of that look. He may be lazy but was not stupid.

"Look, after everything that happened I realized that some things need to change." Issei couldn't believe his next words, but knew how happy it will make his mom. "So, I will gather my ero-stuff and what dad left behind and will take it over to Matsuda or Motohama."

The smile his mother gave him made it worth it he decided. He always knew that she was beautiful, but the smile she sent him made her ethereal.

"Thank you, Ise." He just shrugged as if it wasn't that big of a deal. For most it may have been the case, but both of them (and anyone who knew Issei) knew otherwise.

After a quick breakfast he made his way to his bedroom, doing as promised before he wavered. He was very surprised as he could only fill two boxes with what he found in his room. They were a bit large and his father was quite thorough when packing his stuff, but he was pleasantly surprised by the amount he had. After another quick sweep he was sure there was nothing even remotely perverted inside his room. Then he remembered that most of what he had was infect belonged to his old man. To his disbelief he felt no anger towards the man. For one he brought those so he had every right to take it away with himself. Secondly it made Issei work that much easier.

After that he called his two friend only for his plan to crash there. Matsuda was on Kyushu and won't get back until the day before the start of their second year at Kuoh. They spoke about it briefly just before all the Incident, so Issei simply forgot it at the time. On the plus side he now remembered that Motohama was gone as well on a trip to Korea with his family.

After that relevation he had very little to do. All things remotely ero in the house was packed into the boxes, his room and the house in general was fairly tidy. He could study a bit, but he wanted to do something for his mother, to show that he cared. Little did he knew that the simple fact that he was willing to part with his magazines, ero-games and other such posessions was far better than doing chores around the house.

Akira only protested a little as he started doing what on a normal day was her duty. Or at least trying to help her. Shopping, washing, cooking just to name a few. Though the last was more preparing the ingredients than anything else.

After dinner Issei couldn't help but feel amazed and proud of his mother. Doing all of it along taking care of him and his father was impressive to say the least.

"I'm going for a walk. Be back in a hour or so." The teenager said to Akira. He needed a little alone time and a stroll in the park sounded good for it. Or at least that what TV told him. If nothing else a little fresh air never hurt anybody, right?

After a glance at the clock she nodded at it. Issei held back a groan. It was not even 8 and besides it wasn't even schoolday! She didn't need to be that... well, mothering!

The streets were dark tby the time he was at the park. It was spring, but the days were still pretty short all things considered. He wasn't too bothered by it: he wasn't the type to care for that kind of thing. To be more precise for a very long time he cared little else but female bodies. Now, he came to a very-very hard question. What interested him? Well, besides the female form. He decided to not be blatant about his lust for his mother's sake, not to stop being a pervert. That one was, at best, wishful thinking.

He was so deep in thoughts that he didn't notice the three figure ahead of him. So, when he colided with one of them it took him by complete surprise. After landing on his butt he looked up at them.

"Sorry abou..."

"Shu' up, maggot!" One of the yelled, staggering from left to right. He was lanky, his legs and arms long, his hair brown, his eyes blurry. As he leaned down to look into the boy's eyes he started to stagger back and forth. That was when Issei's nose was hit by the strong smell of alcohol. "Genji was nearly. "My friend, A... Amaru... yu knocked him down! Nearly. Nearly down!"

Issei glanced at the man. He was a little bit taller than Issei but weighted twice as much, with a beer belly being the most obvious reason. If not for the alcohol Issei was certain he would have no chance of moving that man either way. However, tonight he was able to: the man had to brace himself to the nearest tree.

"I-i-it was an accident, sir."

"Ya punks think ya all can get away with anything." The last and oldest of them grumbled. The other two was in their late forties, while the old one was in his sixties.

"Ya may need a lesson." The lanky one decided, before setting his foot into a wide arc. Issei could have ducked or something. It was pretty obvious what was about to happen. But fear paralyzed him. He was dimly aware that he got hit and a second later hit the ground, his side in pain.

The other two men didn't seem bothered by the lanky one's action. In fact both seemed to enjoy the idea of making the boy pay for the error he made.

_"I need to get away."_ Issei thought as his numbness left him. When he tried to get up to run away another foot appeared, pressing him down. _"Fuck! Somebody! Anyone! Please help me!"_

_**"I will help you." **_The sound was deep, guttural, dare he say bestial. **_"But everything will change."_**

"I don't care." Issei said softly. He didn't care. He just didn't want to feel this helpless anymore.

_**"So be it."**_ The Voice agreed.

The next moment something happened. Itr was like something warm was spreading through him like when you submerge into hot water. The blows coming to his side didn't feel that painful anymore, the feet pressing down on him was so weak he could get up any moment he choose. So he did just that, throwing of the fat man from his back.

The lanky one was looking at the teen in surprise. In one moment he was on the ground in a whimpering heap, the next he was standing tall, glowering at him. The next moment the kid's hands were envelopped in blue fire.

The three men had enough. Turning tail they run from the park as fast as they could in their condition.

Issei was no less surprised, looking at his hand in wonder. The fire wasn't hurting him, not even his clothes! He could feel its warmth, but it was far from what he expected.

"What in hell...?"

_**"That's quite appropriate, partner."**_ The Voice, which Issei was sure was only hallucination, replied in clear amusement. _**"You are a devil. And I'm the mighty Ddraig, the Red Dragon Emperor!"**_


	15. DxD 2

Chapter II

"Hyoudou?!"

Issei turned around to meet the incredious gaze of the student council's president, Souna Shitori. Also the third most popular girl in school. Even if she lacked a bit of Issei's favourite part of the femlae anatomy (breast), he had to admit that those long legs and firm arse was really nice to look at. Her short ebony hair, violet eyes along with her beautiful face and petite body gave her an elfish appearance.

"President?" Issei asked back, startled for a moment. He quickly composed himself and gave a polite bow. "Good morning!"

"Good morning." Souna greeted back with a hint of blush on her cheeks. "My apologies if I startled you. I'm not used of you arriving on time to school."

That was an understatement. Issei was twenty minutes ahead of the deadline for students to arrive and half an hour before the actual start of the lessons. He never managed, not once, to arrive before the deadline, which resulted in several detentions before.

"I see." He sheepishly grinned. "You know things have changed and I decided to be more serious about my studies."

"Is that so?" Souna narrowed her eyes. In that moment Issei became aware that something was... different with her.

_"What is that feeling?"_ He asked himself or more accurately his partner Ddraig. But the dragon wasn't in the mood to conserve with him apparently.

_**"I will tell you later."**_

"That is good to hear, Hyoundou-san." Souna said after a moment. "But let's your grades speak for themselves. There are a couple of test right at the end of the first week from last year's curriculum. I hope you are ready for them."

"You bet I'm!" Issei replied with a wide smile. He studied hard and even if he wasn't going to get perfect grades it should be a wast improvement. Souna's eyes widened a little at the confidence Issei showed, before a small smile formed on her lips.

"I see." Her eyes showed a hint of approval before her emotionless mask was back in place. "Well, I need to do my work with the council. If you excuse me."

Issei looked over the back of Souna until she went around the corner. Something bothered him, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. No matter how hard he tried to think about it.

_**"Partner, let's go somewhere private."**_ Ddraig spoke up.

_"Hey, there. Now you want to talk?" _Issei replied with a scoff.

_**"You still cannot control your emotions." **_The dragon let out an exasparated huff. _**"If you start screaming in surprise at seemingly nothing people will..."**_

_"I know!"_ Issei cut him off angrily, not just a little flustered at the reminder of his less than stellar self control. He was getting better but was nowhere near to be able to conserve with Ddraig in public.

Finding a fairly quiet corner of the school ground was not challenging at all at this time of the day. A large percentage of the students were only arriving and from the front entrance as well. In other words the back of the school was mostly empty.

"So, what it is?"

_**"That girl... Souna Shitori, was it? ... she is a devil."**_ Ddraig explained.

"What?!"

_**"Be quiet, you idiot!"**_ Ddraig harshly reminded a glance around Issei was relieved that noone seemed his outbrust.

_"Sorry. What do you mean she is a devil?!"_

_**"What do you think I mean?" **_Was the dragon's sarcastic reply. _**"I mean she is a devil, as in a citizen of the Underworld. That's what you felt for a couple of moments. Her devil energy."**_

_"And just what does she do in this school? Scratch that why she isn't in the Underworld in the first place?"_ Issei asked back.

_**"Who knows? The more important question is what will you do now? She obviously knows that you are a devil now."**_

_"I don't have much of a choice, do I?"_ Issei asked back with a frown. _"I don't have any money and even if I get out of town with mother, there is a chance that I come across other supernatural beings. At least Souna is a devil. I mean she is strict as hell, but..."_

_**"So, the waiting game. Should be fine."**_Ddraig drawled out.

_"You are going to up my training regime, aren't you?"_ Issei realized. The dragon only sent the mental image of a grin as a response.

For the last two weeks Issei trained under Ddraig's guide. Ddraig explained that his most basic power was _**'Boost'**_, an abilty to double the user's power every ten seconds. While not as much of a geek as Motohama Issei was still a fan of video games. He instantly understood how broken this ability was. Ddraig however was quick to put him back in place.

For one Issei was weak. So weak that even ten boosts (which would make him a thousand times stronger) would have little effect on his standing among the supernatural. If that was not enough than the simple fact that his body couldn't handle that many boost was enough to make Issei depressed. Hell, even a simple boost would be pushing it. Of course there was a way to change that. Intense (as in suicidal) training, which Ddraig was happy to provide Issei with.

After two weeks Issei was now able to savely use one boost, but Ddraig wanted to focus on his base stats at first. After all the boost true value was in line with the base stats. As Issei was, honestly, rather pathetic compared to other supernatural beings. For a human he wasn't that bad, but wasn't overly atheltic either. Now he was at least not a big disappointment anymore.

Back in the classroom he sat down, not noticing the glances sent his way by the others. Thanks to his devil heritage or more precisely its awakening his body changed a little bit. His hair darkened to the point it was nearly black. His eyes changed color from amber to dark, purplish blue. He have grown a few inches as well along with gaining a bit more defined musculature thanks to his training.

On any other days he would basked in their interest, he hoped for it afterall, but this little episode with Souna did not left his mind. So he just quietly sat on his chair looking oout the window with his cheek resting on the palm of his left hand. He was so engrossed in trying to think possible scenarios that he did not even notice his two best friend approaching.

"...se-kun! Issei-kun!" At last with a little shove Matsuda gained his attention.

"Ah, Matsuda-kun, Motohama-kun! Good morning!" He greeted his friends, who grinned back at him. "How was your vacation?"

"Nice to see you!" Matsuda greeted him. "I have to tell you Issei! Kyushu had some nice hot girl on the beachs! And I hear the Korean girls are quite cute, right Motohama?"

"Indeed." The young teenager agreed with a smirk as he adjusted his glasses, not considering the dirty looks much of the class shot the trio. Issei couldn't help but smile a bit nostalgic at his friends. Motohama was a geek, simple as that. Matsuda was more like a punk and generally closer in looks to Issei. Well, before his change. "How was your break, Issei-kun?"

"Nowhere near as exciting as yours apparently." He dryly replied. "I don't know if Matsuda mentioned..."

"Ah, your prank!" Motohama laughed at it loudly gaining a few more annoyed look. "I have to give you Issei-kun! That was a nice one! Promising Matsuda your entire collection!"

"Yeah, and I nearly fell for it!" Matsuda chuckled along, neither noticing how serious Issei turned.

"Actually, that was not a prank." He admitted. Matsuda and Motohama's laughter was cut off as the whole room turned silent as grave.

"What?!" Matsuda whispered. Motohama's mouth was hanging open even as the whole room looked on in total disbelief. One of the perverted trio

"Look." Issei started to explain. "A lot happened in the last couple of weeks. I don't think I will need them anymore or have much time to hang out with you. So, I decided to give it to you two."

"Oh? Issei-kun... Could it be... Have you got a girlfriend?" Motohama looked at him with a wicked grin on his face.

"I see! So that how it is." Matsuda nodded stroking his imagery beard. "Then it is alright!"

"Ha!" Issei laughed softly at that. "I wish it was a girlfriend." He murmured. "No, sadly no. The reason is simply I have to help my kaa-san at home so I won't have time for it anymore."

The silence that followed was perhaps the longest anyone experienced with one of the trio in a room. After about half a minute Issei started to get uncomfortable with the looks he was getting from his classmates. Fortunatelly, the teacher, Mei-sensei (a hot red milf with one hell of a body) walked inside looking fairly surprised at the calm atmosphere of the class.

"Look, I will swing by after the end of school and give you half-half of my collection, alrgiht?" Issei asked, trying to finish the conservation. The two boy nodded numbly before going to their sits.

Issei was surprised at just how slow the day seemed to pass. With the rumour of his turnaround being heard by everyone by the start of the second period he was followed by whispers as the girls were very interested in it.

There were dozen theories out at the end of the days, ranging from true redemption to it all being a plot to get neear to the females. Most seemed to adopt the wait and see approch. Later issei learned that it was thanks to Souna, who spoke up on his behalf as he seemed genuine enough.

Matsuda and Motohama seemed to still think it as a joke until issei refused to go with them to peek on the kendo club. That was also what made some of the girls who heard it deciding to follow Souna's lead.

It was two weeks since Issei heard of Souna again. He of course seen her now and then, but they didn't speak at all. He was certain that the girl was observing him along with others. Not that she was the only one. To his surprise there were at least a dozen other devils in school starting with the Two Great Ladies Rias Gremory and Akeno Himejima and stopping at some of the teachers like Mei-sensei.

"Is Issei Hyoundou-kun here?" Looking over the entrance Issei came across Yuuto Kiba, the so called Prince of Kuoh. He was tall, blond, blue eyed and handsome. In other words just as a prince should be.

"I'm here."

"Good afternoon, Hyoundou-kun." Kiba's smile was a little strained in Issei's opinion. Must be the whispers as the girls were wondering what the 'Prince of Kuoh' wanted with Issei. True, Issei's reputation improved in the last two weeks it, but it was still far from the point where his meeting with Kiba could go unnoticed.

"Good afternoon, Kiba-san." Issei greeted him carefully. Kiba was one of the devils he could identify. "What can I do for you?"

"Shitori-san would like to speak with you. Please come with me."

Kiba lead him to the student council's room, but stayed outside. Inside there was only Souna, Tsubaki Shinra, the vice-president, Rias Gremory and Akeno Himejima. Rias and Souna sat on acouch with Tsubaki and Akeno stood behind them. All four girls carefully followed Issei's movements.

"Hyoundou-san, please sit." Souna gestured towars one of the two chairs in front of the couch. Between them was a simple table. As soon as Issei sat down Akeno Put a tea pot and three cups in front of them, filling them. Souna and Rias took the cups gingerly slowly taking a few sips.

"Hyoundou-san, do you know why are you?" Rias asked. Issei wondered how exactly could a hihg school student posses such mature bodies like she, Akeno and Tsubaki.

Rias was simply gorgeous. Crimson hair falling down to the small of her back, turquoise-blue eyes. Strong and long legs, leading to a buttle butt, narrow waist and boobs that was the fantasy os Issei's from a year now.

Akeno was Rias' equal. Her dark hair was much longer though and her violet eyes watched issei with more amusement compared to Rias' curiousity. But her body was just as gorgeous as the other ladies.

Tsubaki was very much like Souna if a bit more... mature. She seemed to be the least interested in the conservation or Issei himself. The young man was curious to see if it was only a mask or she truly was disinterested.

"As all of you are devils... I guess it has something to do with it." Issei replied as he also grabbed his cup and took a sip. "The tea is very good. Whoever made it has my compliments."

"Thank you Issei-kun." Akeno smiled at him.

"You are quite direct, Issei-kun." Rias remarked, before continuing on. "But you aren't wrong: we are here to discuss your change in status so to speak."

"As you must know Rias and I are the heirness of the Gremory and Sitri clan respectively." Souna explained. "As you can guess we were curious about an unknown devil appearing in our territory out the the blue. Expecially as it was someone we know before."

"Wait, I thought you family name was Shitori." Issei interrupted.

"Shitori sounds more Japanese." Souna replied with a shrug. "That means you don't know about us..."

"Not much." Issei admitted. Ddraig wasn't the most knowledgable of devils. Rias and Souna exchanged a glance.

"I don't understand." Rias said at last. "Your master must have spoken about us."

"I don't have a master." Issei replied a bitr uncomfortable.

"If you aren't a peerage member how did you become a devil?" The president of the SC (student council) asked.

"Well, that isn't as interesting as you would think..." Issei then proceed to tell them how he had become one of the devils.

"I have to disagree with you Issei-kun." Rias said with a small smile. "That was very intersting. I never heard of anyone awakening his or her devil power due to one of his ancestor being one."

"I think introductions are in order. Rias is the heirness of the Gremory clan and I'm Sona Sitri the next head of the Sitri clan. Akeno and Tsubaki are our queens."

"And that lead us to the evil piece system. Please, listen carefully, Issei-kun."

A few months ago Issei would have trouble following the conservation with four beautiful girls in the room, talking to him. He came a long way since them.

"Do you have any special abilties?" He asked them after the explanation. "Aside what the pieces give you anyway."

"Our clan abilities." Rias said as crimson energy surrounded her arm. "I have the Power of Destruction."

"And I have water based magics." Sona's reply was curt. "Do you posses something similar Issei-san?"

"You could say that." Issei grinned as blue flames surrounded his right arm. The four girls looked at him in surprise.

"Aamon."

"What?" Issei looked at Sona.

"Aamon." She repeated. "Or the Amon clan. They posses the Fames of Evil. It is nearly as powerful as the Power of Destruction."

"Issei." Rias waited for him to turn around. "I will be direct: I want you to join my peerage." Issei nearly shouted yes at that moment. Barely, but he controled himself. "As one of my servants you could gain power, wealth and even women in time."

"That is a good offer." Issei replied. " A bit too good to be true. What is the downside?"

"Not much." Rias replied. "As your are already a devil the usual downsides are already set in. You would be my servant that is." As Issei didn't answer for a moment she continued. "You don't have a master as a low-class devil, Issei-kun. If our enemies, be it fallen angels or the Church itself attack you, no one will lift a finger in your defense."

"I see." Issei looked at Sona, who asnwered the unasked question.

"I have an arrangement with Rias. Whoever want someone as a servant first has a claim on them."

"I thought you were the first to discover me being a devil..."

"True, but Rias wanted to have you since months." Issei looked at her with a raised eyebrow. As a devil with an useful ability he could understand that, but as a human? Why?

"Why?" He decided to ask the simple question.

"I believed you to posses a sacred gear, one of the more powerful ones in fact." Rias admitted. Issei however was disappointed in teh answer for some reasons he wished not to delve to much on.

"It sounds like you try to amass a powerful peerage as fast as you could."

"Yes. I admit that I'm in a very tight situation. I thought you and your abilities would be a great addition to my peerage." Rias replied sadly. Even if Issei joined her peerage obviously he will be angry at her for the simple reason of why she wanted him in the first place. She was surprised when Issei smiled at her.

"I see. Thank you for being honest with me." Issei was glad that at least she told him the truth. In hindsight he was one of the Perverted Trio before the break, so he shouldn't be surprised if she did not want to do anything with him. "In return I will be also honest with you: I do have a sacred gear." A red gauntlet with a jewel and two golden wings on it covered about half his arm. "Allow me to introduce you to my partner: Ddraig, the Red Dragon Emperor!"

**"Greetings ladies." **Ddraig was able to use his voice though the gear, but only when it was activated.

"Th Boosted Gear..." Tsubaki muttered as all of them looked on with wide eyes. Sona was the first to found her voice.

"That changes everything."

The hopeful and excited gleam in Rias eyes dimmed a lot at hearing Sona's words. Issei himself was confused at that.

"What do you mean?"

"Simple." Rias replied her voice a lotless enthusiam. "You are the wielder of one of the strongest sacred gear in existence. With it you can be powerful enough to kill gods." She pointed at him. "Do you understand how powerful you can be?!"

"That's amazing!" Issei looked impressed at the gauntlet on his arms. "You never told me you are this powerful, partner!" Ddraig, being the smug bastard he was remained silent. "I thought you would be happy with it."

"If you would be a simple human with the Boosted gear I would be very pleased. An unclaimed Amon devil would be a great addition as well. The two together is more trouble than worth."

"I don't understand." Issei admitted his confusion clear.

"Let me explain Issei-san." Sona cool gaze met Issei's. "The Boosted Gear is one of the most powerful weapon in existence. As such any peerage would be happy to have it. One of the Amon clan is bound to be a powerful devil as well." She took a deep breath. "However, the problem lies with the fact that you are both."

"I never eve met anyone from the Amon clan though." Issei pointed out.

"It matters not in this case. If Rias or I claim you as our servant the Amon clan will cause a fuss, stating that we stole the Boosted Gear from the clan. And the Amon clan is on of the stronger clans still remaining. We cannot make an enemy out of them, especially Rias."

"So, what happens now?" Issei asked as he thought on what he heard. It seemed that he had a bit of speak in how things went from here.

"I have an idea." Tsubaki stepped a bit forward as neither Rias nor Sona said anything. "If Issei-san becomes a free agent he can serve you, while not angering the Amon clan.

"Free agent?" Issei asked.

"Basically mercenary." Rias replied with a smile on her face. "I think that is the best. You remain a bit independent, but still can claim a connection to me, defending you from most of our enemies."

"Sounds good." Issei agreed. "What is the catch?"

"Free agents aren't well liked or respected in the Underworld." Rias replied.

"As you may noticed I was never the most popular to begin with." Issei shrugged. "So, how do we do it?"


End file.
